





^ 







COMPARATIVE VIEW 



OF 



THE INDUSTRIAL SITUATION 



OF 



GREAT BRITAIN. 



<v 









\A C/ K CX \? 



London : 

Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, 

New- Street-Square. 



A 



COMPARATIVE VIEW 



OF 



THE INDUSTRIAL SITUATION 



OF 



GREAT BRITAIN, 

FROM THE YEAR 1775 TO THE PRESENT TIME, 



WITH 

AN EXAMINATION 

OF 



THE CAUSES OF HER DISTRESS. 



BY 

ALEXANDER MUNDELL, Esq. 



"W 






LONDON: 



PRINTED FOR 

LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMAN, 

PATERNOSTER-ROW ; 
AND JAMES RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY. 

1832. 



MATTERS CHIEFLY ADVERTED TO. 



The main points (all prominent in our present 
situation) adverted to in the following pages 
are, — 

The State of our Shipping. 

of our Exports. 

- of our Imports. 

The Operation of our Money System. 

of our Corn Laws. 

of our Poor Laws. 

The Mode of raising our Revenue. 
The Amount of our National Debt. 

It appears from the investigation, the result of 
which is given in the following pages, that the 
opinions which are generally prevalent upon 
these subjects are altogether erroneous. It may 
seem, and doubtless it is, singular, that opinions 
should have been generally received upon mat- 
ters of such paramount importance without ex- 
amination. But the truth is, that, upon these 
subjects, as upon many others, impressions have 

a 3 



VI 



been taken from persons whose interests were 
affected, and whose opinions were adopted, 
without reflecting that such persons were incom- 
petent judges in their own case ; of which, more- 
over, they took very partial and limited views, 
while every one shrunk from the investigation of 
facts with which those who were more immedi- 
ately concerned were supposed to be conusant. 
Errors have thus multiplied ; but it is consoling 
to find, that the- sources of our prosperity remain 
entire, and that we have only to correct those 
errors, in order to advance in improvement with 
a rapidity and to an extent hitherto unexam- 
pled, even in this country. 

August, 1882. 






CONTENTS. 



PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 

Page 

Increase of Shipping 1 

Increase of Exports - ib. 

Distress prevalent nevertheless - - ib. 

Chiefly in the Agricultural Districts - - ib. 

Causes — Restraints upon Industry rendered 
progressively severe by a Rise in the ex- 
changeable Value of Money 2 

Investigation proposed 3 



PART I. 

INCREASE OF SHIPPING AND EXPORTS. 

CHAP. I. 

Increase of our Shipping, and of the Exports 

of Home Produce and Manufactures - 5 

Table showing it - - 6 

Facts relative to British Tonnage 8 

Foreign Tonnage - 9 

Exports - - - - 10 

Imports - - - 1 1 

A 4 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

CHAP. II. 



Page 



o v 



Rise in the exchangeable Value of Money - 14 

Shown by our Exports - ib. 

Commencement in 1811 - - - 15 

Continuance ever since -"■ - - 16 

Causes of Depression - ib. 

Opinions as to Depression - - 19 

How Depression is to be accounted for - 20 
Measure of Rise in exchangeable Value of 

Money - - - 22 

PART II. 

MONEY RESTRAINTS. 

CHAP. I. 

The Bank of England and its exclusive Privi- 
lege, with its immediate Consequence - 24 

Establishment of the Bank without any exclu- 
sive Privilege - - - 25 

When granted - - - 26 

Consequences - ib. 

Banking not a substantive Trade in England - 28 

CHAP. II. 

Further Consequences of the exclusive Privilege 

of the Bank of England - 29 

Amount of Currency - ib. 

Insecurity of Transactions - SO 

Upon what Security rests . - - ib. 
Insecurity of Paper issued by other Banking 

Companies - - - ib. 

Insecurity of Deposits - - - ib. 

Amount of Deposits - ib. 



CONTENTS. IX 

CHAP. III. 

Page 

The Effect of the exclusive Privilege of the 

Bank with respect to the Amount of its Issues 31 

Over-Issue of the Bank --■•■- ib. 

Manner of it - - - ib. 

Issues of other Bankers limited - - ib. 

Contraction of its Issues by the Bank - 33 

Over-Issues by the Bank the Cause of over- 
Issues by other Bankers - - ib. 

Consequences - - - 34 

CHAP. IV. 

The Removal of the exclusive Privilege - 35 

Consequences - ib. 

Caution and Circumspection on the Part of the 

Bank - ib. 

Deposits — Importance of Security to, not con- 
templated at Formation of the Bank - ib. 

Deposits with other Bankers greater than De- 
posits with the Bank - -36 

CHAP. V. 

The Nature of Coin, and of Bank and Bankers' 

Notes - - 37 

Coin — what - ib. 

Bills of Exchange - ib. 

Bankers' Notes - ib. 

Currency when most perfect - - 38 

Banking Operations — Period of Commence- 
ment - - - 39 

Consequences of Freedom in - - 40 



X 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. VI. 

Revulsion of 1825-6 similar to 1815-16 
Causes - - - 

Cheapness of Abundance, added to Rise in the 

Value of Money - 

Country Bankers the Victims, not the Causes, 

of the Revulsion 
Contrary Impression of the Minister 
His Letter to the Bank adverted to 



Page 
41 
42 

45 

46 
ib. 
ib. 



CHAP. VII. 

Metallic Standard - - 47 

Alteration in 1816 - - - ib. 

Effect of it - - - 48 

Gold Standard preferable to Silver - - ib. 
Poor Parts of the Country cannot sustain a - 

Currency in Gold - - - 49 

Country Parts of England thence distressed - ib. 
Standard of Silver must be resorted to, or small 

Notes must again be issued - - ib. 






PART III. 



CORN-LAW RESTRAINTS. 



CHAP. I. 

Errors of the Agricultural and Manufacturing 

Interests with respect to the Corn Laws - 52 

Table of Imports from 1773 - - ib. 

Home Growth increased previous to 1815 - 53 

Has diminished since 54 






CONTENTS. XI 

CHAP. II. 

Page 

Protection afforded by the Corn Laws previous 

to 1815 - 54 
The Reverse since - - -55 

Freedom previous to 1815 - - ib. 

Importable Price had no Operation - 56 

Consequence - ib. 

Reverse in 1815 - - - 57 

CHAP. III. 

Consequences of a restraining Corn Law to 

the Home Grower - - - 59 

Loss of Export - - 60 

Consequences - - - 61 

In Reign of Queen Elizabeth adverted to (Note) ib. 

Encouragement of Import - 63 

Operation explained - 64- 

Every Season operates as a bad Season - ib. 

CHAP. IV. 

Consequences of the Restraint to Owners of 

Land - - -65 

Diminution of Rent - - * - ib. 

What Rent is 66 

Can be maintained only by Amount of Produce 67 

CHAP. V. 

Consequences of the Restraint to Agricultural 

Labourers - - - 67 

Diminution of Employment 68 

Increase of the Poor- Rates - - ib. 



Xll CONTENTS. 

CHAP. VI. 

Page 

Increase of Fluctuations of Price - - 69 

Instances - - - - ib. 

Fluctuations at Dantzic 70 

Fluctuations in other Countries - - ib. 

Consequences - - - 71 

CHAP. VII. 

Injustice as well as Impolicy of Corn Laws - 72 

Benefit to Growers at Expense of Consumers - ib. 

Raising Prices of Corn with reference to Taxes 73 
In principle the same with Immunity from 

Taxes - - ib. 

Consequences - - 74 

CHAP. VIII. 

Remedy - - - - 75 
Restoration of the Operation of the Laws which 

prevailed previous to 1815 - - ib. 
Operation of the Laws previous to that Year, 

and since - ib. 

Object to be attained - - 77 

How to be attained - ib. 

Plan suggested - - 81 

Objections obviated - - - 83 



PART IV. 

POOR LAW RESTRAINTS. 

CHAP. I. 

Money expended for the Relief of the Poor - 81- 

Returns made - - - ib. 

Sums expended in different Years - - ib. 

Committees appointed thereon - - 85 



CONTENTS. Xiii 

CHAP. II. 

Page 

Causes of Increase and Variations in the 

Amount of the Poor's Rate - - 86 

Seasons of Scarcity - ib. 

Enquiry as to the Seasons and their Effects - 88 

Interference of Magistrates - 90 

Occurrences in 1795 - - 91 

Consequences - - - 92 

Explanation of the Increase and Decrease - ib. 

CHAP. III. 

Effects of the Mal-administration of the Poor 

Laws on Morals and Industry - - 95 

Effects upon unmarried Men - - ib. 

Effects upon unmarried Women - 95 

Immorality incompatible with Industry - ib. 

Consequent Carelessness and Recklessness - 97 

Diminution of Work done by Labourers - ib. 

CHAP. IV. 

Effect of the Mal-administration of the Poor 

Laws on Population gg 

Effect upon the Number of Births - - ib. 

Effect of a contrary System - - 99 

Errors committed in attempts to establish a 

Rate of Increase - - - ib. 

CHAP. V. 

Practice — illegal - - - - 100 

Provisions of 43 Eliz. - ib. 

Distinction between Work and Relief - 101 



XIV CONTENTS. 

Page 

Agricultural Labourers not contemplated by 

the 43 Eliz. - - - 102 

Abuses greatest in Agricultural Counties - 103 
Questions put to the Judges as to the Legality 

of the Practice - - - 104 

CHAP. VI. 

Remedy - - - 105 

System established in the Parish of Cookham ib. 
Parish to be the hardest Master and lowest 

Payer - - - 106 

Adopted in other Parishes - - 107 

How it operates - - - 108 

How to be brought about - - 110 

Practicable in all Parishes - - 112 

Inadequacy of Acts of Parliament - - 113 

Course to be taken - - - 114 

CHAP. VII. 

Expedients for the Relief of the Poor - - 115 

Grant of Portions of Land - - ib.. 

System in the North of England - - ib. 

General Enclosure Act - - - 116 

Enabling Bills - - - - 117 

Dangers to be apprehended therefrom - ib. 

Emigration - - - -118 

All at best only Mitigants - - ib. 



CONTENTS. XV 

PART V. 

REVENUE RESTRAINTS. 

CHAP. I. 

Page 

Public Revenue - - - 119 

Customs - - - - - ib. 

Excise - - - - ib. 

CHAP. II. 

Best mode of raising the Public Revenue - 121 

Duties of Customs - - ib. 

Operation of Excise Duties - - - 122 

Industry thereby repressed - - ib. 

Operation of Duties of Customs - - ib. 

Home Industry thereby promoted - - ib. 

Increase of Duties of Customs - - 124 

Require Revision - - ib, 

A sure Source of Revenue - - 125 

CHAP. III. 

National Debt - - - - 127 

How of no Importance - - ib. 

Yearly Amount of Returns of Industry - ib. 

Nearly equal to the whole Debt - - ib. 

CHAP. IV. 

Recapitulation - - 128 

Reflections - - - ib. 

Facts neglected - - - 129 

Further Reflections - - 130 

Questions - - — - 131 

Suggestions - - - 132 

Benefit - - 133 



PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 



AUTHOR'S VIEWS AND PURPOSE UNFOLDED. 

We have enjoyed seventeen years of peace, 
during which our shipping, and our exports of 
home produce and manufacture, have increased 
in a greater proportion than ever they did in any 
previous period of our history ; yet distress has, 
nevertheless, prevailed generally throughout the 
country, and particularly in the agricultural dis- 
tricts. A transition from war to peace has 
always produced a revulsion, as a transition from 
peace to war has done, and to the extent of the 
revulsion there always has been distress ; but 
such distress has heretofore passed away with the 
consequences of the revulsion which produced 
it. It was reserved for our times, that distress 
should not only continue, but should increase, 
throughout so long a period of peace. 

But distress is not confined to Great Britain. 
It prevails in every country in Europe. It is 
only felt more severely in Great Britain than in 
other countries, except France, in which it is 
felt still more severely than it is in Great Britain. 

B 



£ CAUSES OF DISTRESS. 

The causes of the distress which thus prevail 
must, therefore, be causes which are common 
to every country in Europe, but operate most 
powerfully in France and in Great Britain. The 
only causes, of this description, which I have 
been able to discover, are legislative and muni- 
cipal restraints upon industry, rendered progres- 
sively more severe by a continuous rise in the 
exchangeable value of money. Such restraints 
become progressively lighter, while money con- 
tinues to fall in exchangeable value, but their 
severity accumulates as it rises. Now, money 
continued to fall in exchangeable value until the 
year 1810. It has continued to rise since that 
year. 

It is then by restraints upon industry, as it 
appears to me, that the distress which continues 
generally to prevail is to be accounted for. Such 
restraints operate more severely in France and 
Great Britain than in other European countries, 
because there is more of industry in France and 
in Great Britain than in other countries ; and 
such distress is more severe in France than in 
this country, because industry is more fettered 
there than it is here. Political causes, no doubt, 
exist in both countries, which have their in- 
fluence ; but, as it appears to me, effects are 
frequently ascribed in either country to political 
causes, which spring from restraints upon in- 



RESTRAINTS UPON INDUSTRY. 3 

dustry, or are the consequence of combinations 
among workmen to keep up wages, which must 
come down with a rise in the exchangeable 
value of money. 

If this be so, we have only to find out what 
the restraints are which operate upon industry, 
in order to remove the cause. 

Such an enquiry would open a field too 
vast to be brought to a close within a period to 
be useful. It is, therefore, necessary to make a 
selection ; and after showing that our shipping, 
and the exports of our home produce and manu- 
factures continue to increase, because they are 
not affected by such restraints, I propose to 
point out how our home industry suffers from 
restrictions in our money system ; from the 
operation of our corn laws ; of ill-administered 
poor laws ; and from the manner of our raising 
a revenue for the service of the state. All these 
will be found to operate in the way of restraints 
upon industry. The unfolding of the manner in 
which they so operate, will also serve to show 
how their operation, in this respect, may be 
removed. 

I shall state no fact, the evidence of which is 
not to be found in documents laid before either 
house of parliament ; nor shall I draw any con- 
clusion, except upon grounds which I shall state, 
so that every reader may verify the fact by re- 

b 2 



4 INVESTIGATION PROPOSED. 

curring to the evidence of it, to which I shall 
refer. If I am right in the view which I take 
of the causes of our continued and continuing 
distress, others may be induced to follow my 
example in tracing the operation of other re- 
straints upon industry. But the investigation of 
the subjects which I have selected, is so im- 
portant in itself, that the facts which I shall pre- 
sent with respect to all of them, can hardly fail 
to lead to the correction of errors which will be 
found in each of them, even though I should be 
deemed wrong in the general view which I take 
of the causes of our distress. 



PART I. 

INCREASE OF SHIPPING AND EXPORTS. 



CHAP. I. 



INCREASE OF OUR SHIPPING, AND OF THE EXPORTS 
OF HOME PRODUCE AND MANUFACTURES, SINCE THE 
YEAR 1775. 

In the year 177^, the war with America began. 
It ended in 1783, from which year we were at„ 
peace until 1793 ; when began the revolutionary 
war with France, which, with the exception of 
one year (1802) and another before the battle 
of Waterloo, finally closed in 1815 ; since which 
year we have been at peace. 

In order that an estimate may be made by in- 
spection, I annex a table ; showing the tonnage 
of British vessels and of foreign vessels that 
cleared outwards from Great Britain in 177<5, 
and every fifth year since that year ; with a 
column showing the amount of the exports of 
home produce and manufactures exported, with 
our imports, in every fifth year since 1795 ; to 
which I have added the net amount of our cus- 
toms in 1775, and every fifth year thereafter. 

b 3 - 



6 



INCREASE OF SHIPPING. 



PART I. 



A TABLE, showing the Tonnage of Shipping that cleared Outwards 
Exports of British Produce and Manufactures in 1800, and every 
every Fifth Year thereafter ; also Bank Notes and Bank Post Bills in 
February in every Year thereafter; with the Price of Gold per 
every Fifth Year thereafter, with the Population according to the 

Note. — The Amounts previous to 1805 inclusive, are taken from 

Accounts laid before Parliament 



In the 
Years. 



1775 
1780 
1785 
1790 
1795 
1800 
1805 
1810 
1815 
1820 
1825 
1830 
1831 



Number of Ships that cleared Outwards. 
A. 



Tons, 
British. 



Tons, 
Foreign. 



783,226 
619,462 
951,855 
1,260,828 
1,030,058 
1,269,329 
1,284,691 
1,624,120 
1,381,041 
1,549,508 
1,711,169 
2,102,147 
2,300,731 



64,860 
134,515 
103,398 
144,132 
370,238 
654,713 
572,961 
1,138,527 
751,377 
433,328 
851,354 
758,368 
896,051 



Total. 



848,066 
753,957 
1,055,253 
1,404,960 
1,400,296 
1,924,042 
1,857,652 
2,762,647 
2,132,418 
1,982,836 
2,562,523 
2,860,515 
3,196,782 



Official Value 
of Exports of 
British Manu- 
factures.* 



Declared 
Value of 
Exports. 



22,831,936 
22,907,371 
33,299,408 
41,712,002 
37,820,293 
46,453,022 
60,492,637 
60,090,123 



36,929,007 
37,234,396 
47,000,926 
49,653,245 
35,569,077 
38,077,330 
37,691,302 
36,652,694 



* The articles which form our 

Alum. 

Apparel, slops, and negro clothing. 
Arms and ammunition. 
Bacon and hams. 
Bark, British oak, for tanners. 
Beef and pork salted. 
Beer and ale. 
Books printed. 

Brass and copper manufac- 
tures. 
Bread and biscuit. 
Butter and cheese. 
Cabinet and upholstery wares. 
Coals and culm. 
Cordage. 

Corn, grain, meal, and flour. 
Cotton manufactures. 
Cotton yarn. 
Earthenware of all sorts. 



exports, are the following : — 

Fish of all sorts. 

Glass of all sorts. 

Haberdashery and millinery. 

Hardwares and cutlery. 

Hats, beaver and felt. 

Hats of all other sorts. 

Hops. 

Horses. 

Iron and steel, wrought and un- 

wrought. 
Lead and shot. 

Leather, wrought and unwrought. 
Leather, saddlery, and harness. 
Linen manufactures. 
Machinery and millwork. 
Mathematical and optical instr«« 

ments. 
Molasses. 
Musical instruments. 



CHAP. I. 



INCREASE OF SHIPPING, 



rom Great Britain in 1775, and every Fifth Year thereafter; also the 
7 ifth Year thereafter ; also the Net Duties of Customs in 1775, and 
Circulation on the 26th of February, 1800, and in the last Week of 
)unce ; also the Net Revenue of Great Britain in the Year 1790, and 
^pulation Returns. 

lr. Chalmers's "Political Estimate;" and thereafter from 
hiefly the Finance Accounts. 



Official Value 
of Imports. 



Net Duties of 
Customs. 



Bank Notes in 
Circulation, in- 
cluding Bank 
Post Bills, on 
26th February, f 



Price of Gold 
per Oz. 



Net Revenue 
of Great Bri- 
tain, t 



Population. 



28,257,781 
27,334,020 
37,613,294 
31,822,053 
31,515,222 
42,660,954 
46,245,241 
49,713,889 



£ 

2,481,031 

2,723,920 

4,592,091 

3,782,822 

3,569,360 

6,799,755 

9,084,459 

11,495,382 

11,795,088 

10,108,836 

16,942,013 

19,360,751 

16,678,624 



15,236,670 
17,234,460 
20,429,280 
26,673,370 
23,569,160 
21,060,144 
20,050,735 



£ 



3 17 9 

4 
4 6 
4 9 
3 17 10§ 



16,451,450 
18,456,299 
33,427,561 
44,278,384 
61,952,294 
72,151,181 
48,732,354 
51,769,992 
46,431,159 
46,293,646 



10,912,646 
12,609,864 
14,391,631 
16,537,398 



Oil, train of, Greenland fishery. 

Painters' colours. 

Plate, plated ware, jewellery, 

watches. 
Salt. 

Saltpetre, British, refined. 
Seeds of all sorts. 
Silk manufactures. 
Soap and candles. 
Stationery of all sorts. 



Sugar, refined. 
Tin unwrought. 
and Tin and pewter wares. 
Tin and tin plates. 
Tobacco and snuff, British manu- 
factured. 
Umbrellas and parasols. 
Whalebone. 

Woollen manufactures. 
All other arti c les. 



■f The amount of Bank notes in circulation, with the prices of gold, 
Is taken from Vol. XVI. 1821 ; in 1825, from Vol. XVII. 1825 ; and in 
1830, from Vol. V. 1830. — Mem. No return has yet appeared of the 
amount in the last week of February in the present year, but it is under- 
stood not to have much exceeded 17,000,000/. ! In April, 1815, the price 
of gold was 51. Is. per oz. See Appendix to Bank Report, 1819. 

\ The revenue from 1790 to 1820, is taken from Vol. XVI. 1824; the 
three last years from the Finance Accounts. 

B 4 



8 INCREASE OF PART I. 

With a view to what I have to state relative tc 
our money system, the amount of bank notes 
and bank post bills are given as they appear 
from parliamentary returns in the last week in 
February, 1800, and in the last week in February 
in every fifth year thereafter, with the market 
price of gold in bars, where that appears in such 
returns. As important, also, in forming an esti- 
mate of the situation of the country, the net 
revenue of Great Britain is given for the year 
1790, and in every fifth year thereafter ; with the 
numbers of the people, as these appear from the 
population returns. 

Our shipping, which is affected by the revul- 
sion occasioned by a transition from peace to 
war, recovers afterwards ; and appears to in- 
crease in a course of years, whether we are at 
war or in peace. Though the tonnage fell off 
in the five years ending in I78O, it increased 
much more than the sum of this declension in 
the five years ending in 1785 ; and though it 
diminished in the five years ending in 1795, its 
amount in the five years ending in 1800 ex- 
ceeded its amount in the five years ending in 
1790. It has since greatly increased, with the 
exception of the five years ending in 1815 ; since 
which year it has steadily increased. 

Dividing the period of the table into four equal 
parts, each representing fifteen years, though 



CHAP. I. SHIPPING. 9 

every fifth year only is given, the amount of 
tonnage in each period is as follows : — 





Tonnage. 


In the 15 years ending in 1785 


- 2,354,543 


1800 


- 3,560,215 


1815 


- 4,289,852 


1830 


- 5,362,824 



There thus appears to have been a continuing 
increase of British shipping in each period of 
fifteen years ; and the year 1831 gives us a rea- 
sonable assurance of a continuance of augment- 
ation : for the British tonnage which cleared 
outwards, in the year 1831, was 2,300,731, 
whereas in 1830 it was only 2,102,147 tons. 

The tonnage of foreign ships frequenting our 
ports has also increased. 



Tonnage. 



In the 15 years ending in 1785 it was - 302,398 

1800 - - 1,169,083 

1815 - - 2,462,910 

1830 - - 2,043,050 

The foreign shipping thus has not increased 
in the same proportion with British shipping. 
Though its proportion of increase was greater 
than our own previous to 1815, yet the amount 
of foreign tonnage clearing outwards has not 
only not increased, but it has considerably di- 
minished, since that year. 

This fact alone may be sufficient to dispel 
the fears of those who alarmed themselves with- 



10 INCREASE OF EXPORTS. PART I. 

out cause, from their misapprehension of the 
operation of our reciprocity system. 

Those fears may be still more completely dis- 
pelled, from the increasing amount of our ex- 
ports since the year 1815. 

In that year the amount of our exports, ac- 
cording to official value, was 41,712,002/.* ; being 
by much the greatest amount which we had ever 
previously exported. The amount of that year, 
doubtless, was much increased by the greatness 
of our foreign expenditure required to support 
the numerous army which we then had to main- 
tain upon the Continent ; and, possibly, also by 
an expectation of demand upon the Continent, 
which appears to have been disappointed ; for 
in the following year our exports, in official value, 
amounted only to 34,774,501 /.t Many well-in- 
formed persons believed, that we should not be 
able to maintain a competition with manufac- 

* Pari. Papers, 1830. No. 315. Official value is according 
to certain rates fixed in 1696, which never vary, and thus 
show quantity. These rates will be found in Vol.xxii. of the 
Sessional Papers of the House of Commons for 1826. De- 
clared value, which was not required until 1797, is the value 
declared to be the value of the articles exported at the 
period of export. The difference between the official and 
declared value of each year, shows the fall or rise in the 
exchangeable value. The difference between official value in 
different years shows the difference of the quantity exported. 

f Parliamentary Papers, 1 830. No. 315. 



CHAP. I. INCREASE OF IMPORTS. 11 

turers on the Continent ; who, it was conceived, 
could bring the products of their industry to 
market at cheaper rates than we could. Such 
apprehension has proved to be altogether 
groundless. Our exports have greatly increased, 
particularly since 1822, when they amounted in 
official value to 43,558,488/., being greater than 
their amount in 1815 ; and last year they were 
in official value 60,090,123/., being, indeed, 
402,514/. below their amount in the preceding 
year, but nearly a third more than their amount 
in 1815 ; which was 8,511,422/. in official value 
above that of the preceding year (1814).* 

Our imports afford evidence upon which an 
equally firm reliance may be placed in proof of 
the increase of industry in Great Britain. Our 
export trade consists in the exchange of our com- 
modities for the commodities of other countries. 
These foreign commodities so exchanged for 
ours are stated in the Custom House books, 
when they are imported, according to certain 
rates, which never vary. The official value of 
our imports thus shows the quantity of foreign 
commodities imported from time to time, as the 
official value of our exports shows the quantity 
of our commodities exported from time to time. 
The exchangeable value, or current prices, of 
both at the time are estimated in gold in this 

* Parliamentary Papers, 1830. No. 315. 



12 INCREASE OF IMPORTS. PART I. 

country ; because gold now forms our standard 
of value ; and in silver in other countries, be- 
cause silver forms the standard of value in such 
countries. But the proportion between the ex- 
changeable value of gold and silver as against 
each other is known, and can easily be estimated. 
Coin will never be taken in exchange for more 
than the quantity of the metal contained in it. 
The only use of coin is to show the quantity of 
metal in the coin without the trouble of weigh- 
ing and essaying ; and the par rates of exchange 
as between different countries have been fixed 
according to the quantity of pure gold or pure 
silver contained in the coins of each. 

Our imports, like our exports, being stated 
according to certain official rates of value, the 
increase of our imports thus affords as unerring 
evidence of the increase of the products of our 
industry as the increase of our exports. Dividing 
the last thirty years into two equal periods, the 
imports, according to the amount every fifth 
year, appear to have been as under : — 

£ 

In the 15 years ending in 1815 - - 96,769,367 

1830 - - 120,421,417 

As the exports in 1831 above the preceding 
year gave assurance of a continuance of an in- 
crease of export, so the increase of import in 
1831 gives equal assurance of an increase of 



CHAP. I. INCREASE OF IMPORTS. 13 

import. The imports in official value in 1831 
were 49,713,889/., but in 1830 only 46,245/. 

The amount of import has not always been 
correspondent to the amount of export. On the 
contrary, in the year 1815, when we had the 
largest export ever previously experienced, being 
41,712,002/. in official value, the import inofficial 
value was only 31,515,222/. But the explan- 
ation is, that the exchange of commodities is the 
exchange of equivalents ; and an equivalent may 
be received by Great Britain in another country, 
as well as in Great Britain itself. In that year, 
the equivalent was received abroad, in furnish- 
ings and otherwise to our troops ; in satisfaction 
of which a larger export became necessary. The 
amount of the import, however, shows how much 
of the equivalent is received in this country ; 
and an increasing import shows increasing means 
of consumption through the returns of home 
industry, whose products are given in exchange 
for foreign products. * 

No doubt, therefore, can be entertained of the 

* Our older statistical writers, even down to the late 
George Chalmers (who had not been able to free himself 
from their delusion), confounded themselves about a balance 
of trade. Their error lay in not considering gold and silver 
as commodities which may be always purchased by other 
commodities. All trade consists in the exchange of equi- 
valents, and we receive an equivalent, whether we exchange 
commodities commonly so called for other commodities com- 
monly so called, or whether we exchange them for gold and 
silver. 



14 RISE IN THE EXCHANGEABLE PART I. 

increase of our national industry, though that in- 
dustry is depressed by legislative and municipal 
restraints in a manner to be hereafter explained. 



CHAP. II. 

RISE IN THE EXCHANGEABLE VALUE OF MONEY. 

By means of our exports, the period of the rise 
in the exchangeable value of money can be 
ascertained with the most perfect certainty. In 
the year 1810, our exports were, in official value, 
33,299,408/., and in declared value 47,000,926/. 
In 1811, they were, in official value, only 
21,723,532/., and in declared value 30,850,618/. ; 
the proportion of which to 21,723,532/. is much 
less than the proportion which 47,000,926/. bears 
to 33,299,403/. the amounts in the preceding 
year. But the amount, as well as the period of 
the fall of prices, — in other words, the rise in the 
exchangeable value of money, — is still more 
strongly marked by our exports. It so happens 
that the amount of our exports, in official value, 
in 1800, was 22,831,936/., and in declared value 
36,929,007/.; so that an amount of exports in 
1811, only 1,108,404/. under their amount in 
official value in 1800, shows a difference of no 



CHAP. II. VALUE OF MONEY. 15 

* 

less than 6,078,329/. below the amount of de- 
clared value in 1811, being a fall of upwards of 
20 per cent. 

Whatever the cause of the fall of prices, there- 
fore, may have been, it is certain that it began in 
this year, and was to this extent. It is not less 
certain that, previous to 1811, declared value 
continued to gain upon official value ; but that 
since 1811 official value has continued to gain 
upon declared value ; and the differences, while 
they mark the continuance, also show the amount, 
of the depression. 

The amount of our exports in 1811, accord- 
ing to declared value, as already stated, was — 

£ 
4-7,000,926 
And according to the same value 

in 1831 - - - 36,652,694- 



Difference - - £10,348,232; 



which would be the amount of the depression, if 
there had been no increase of export. 

But the amount of Exports in official £ 

value in 1831 was - - - 60,090,123 

And in the same value in 1811, the 

amount was - - - 21,723,532 



Increase - - - £38,366,591 



The annexed table will show the differences 
between official and declared value in every 



16 



AMOUNT OF DEPRESSION. 



PART I. 



year since 1811 to 1831, both inclusive, and also 
the total amount of these differences : — 



Difference of official value under 


Difference of 


official value over 


declared value. 




declared value. 






£ 








£ 


1811 - 


- 


9,127,086 


1820 


- 


- 


2,251,216 


1812 


- 


10,886,614 


1821 


- 


- 


4,371,554 


1813* - 
1814 - 






1 829 






7,381,591 
8,576,629 


_ 


10,246,793 


JL O £i£J 

1823 


. 


- 


1815 


- 


7,941,243 


1824 


- 


- 


10,424,931 


1816 


- 


5,554,419 


1825 


- 


- 


8,375,692 


1817 


- 


1,115,768 


1826 


- 


- 


9,485,326 


1818 


- 


3,219,595 


1827 


- 


- 


14,884,285 


1819 


- 


1,268,562 


1828 


- 


- 


15,869,349 








1829 


- 


- 


20,252,850 








1830 


- 


- 


22,801,335 








1831 


- 


- 


25,437,429 


Difference of official value 


\ under ( 


leclar 


ed 




value, 


in 


1811 


- 


. - 


j£9, 127,086 



Difference of official value over declared 

value, in 1831 - - - 25,437,429 



Total amount of differences from 1811 to 183 1^34,564,5 15 



The amount of the depression thus appears to 
increase every year, and must therefore proceed 
from a cause which began to operate in 1811, 
and has continued to operate ever since. 

Now, there is no cause of this description, but 
the defalcation in the supply of gold and silver, 
which was occasioned by the overwhelming of 
the South American mines, by the revolution in 
the mining districts in 1810 ; at which time the 
annual supply from these mines was nearly forty- 
* Records destroyed by fire. 



CHAP. II. CAUSES OF DEPRESSION. 17 

eight millions of dollars, but has not since ex- 
ceeded twelve millions of dollars. 

Mr. Tooke, who wrote his book on high and 
low prices under the impression that there had 
been no defalcation in the supply of gold and 
silver from the mines, endeavoured to account 
for the depression of prices from over produc- 
tion* When the account of the supply from the 
South American mines for the ten years which 
preceded 1810, and for the ten years which 
followed that year, was sent to him by Mr. Jacob, 
Mr. Tooke published the account in a supple- 
mental section to a second edition of his work. 
But he doubted the extent of its operation, — 

1. From the quantity of commodities, in the circum- 
stances he adverted to, affecting the contingent 
as w r ell as actual supply, compared to the average 
rate of consumption, which it appeared to him 
might account for the difference of bullion prices. 

2. The diminution or cessation of the drain of 
silver from hence to the East Indies and China, 
and an inversion of the stream by the import- 
ation of the precious metals from the East Indies 
to this country. 3. From the increased transport 
to Europe of immense capitals in gold and silver, 
consequent upon the migration of old Spaniards 
from South America. 

But none of these causes had any operation 
in 1811. Increased production since has, per* 

c 



18 CAUSES OF DEPRESSION. PART I. 

haps, been rather a consequence from than a 
cause of the rise in the exchangeable value of 
money, from a defalcation in the supply of 
the precious metals ; because all commercial men 
have engagements to make good, and when they 
become unequal to meet their payments from 
returns falling off in money amount, they natu- 
rally endeavour to make up for deficiency of 
price by increase of quantity. The diminution 
or cessation of the drain of silver to the East, 
and the influx thence to this country (consequent 
upon gold and silver becoming scarcer in Europe 
than in Asia), did not take place for nearly ten 
years after 1810 ; and the supply brought by 
emigrant Spaniards could only be to a limited 
amount, and could produce only a temporary 
effect. 

The termination of the war, and the prepar- 
ation made for returning to a metallic standard 
in 1819, to which so much effect beyond their 
actual operation has been ascribed by others, 
could not account for the fall of prices in 1811. 
The one could not have any influence until 
1816, nor the other for three years afterwards. 
Mr. Tooke appears to me to have shown, very 
successfully, that war or peace, or even taxes, 
have little effect upon general prices. He ap- 
pears to me to be not less successful in showing 
that the diminution of prices, consequent upon 



CHAP. II. OPINIONS AS TO DEPRESSION. 19 

returning to a standard of gold, could not have 
any influence beyond the difference between the 
mint and the market price of gold, in which he 
supports Mr. Ricardo's opinion. It was the 
rise in the exchangeable value of the standard, 
and not the return to it, which has occasioned a 
depression of prices so much beyond the differ- 
ence between paper and bullion prices. 

In reviewing Mr. Jacob's book on the produc- 
tion and consumption of the precious metals, the 
reviewer # questions a rise in the exchangeable 
value of money, from a defalcation in the supply 
of gold and silver from the mines, upon grounds 
which either serve only to lessen the effects of 
the defalcation, or which resolve the rise into an 
increased supply of other commodities ; but, if 
the supply of all other commodities be unquestion- 
ably increasing, and the supply of gold and silver 
be stationary, or increasing in a much smaller pro- 
portion, it necessarily follows that a continuing 
depression of prices must follow from the scanti- 
ness of the supply of the precious metals ; and 
the amount of the depression must increase in 
proportion to the increasing abundance in the 
supply of other commodities, and the scantiness 
of the supply of gold and silver, varied by the 
difference in the abundance or scantiness in the 

* Edinburgh Review for April, 1832. 
C 2 



20 HOW DEPRESSION IS PART I. 

relative supply in particular years. It seems 
impossible to account for a continuing depression 
of prices, otherwise than by a rise in the ex- 
changeable value of gold and silver, from a 
scantiness in the supply. The comparative aggre- 
gate of our exports in every succeeding year 
shows continuing depression, which appears to in- 
crease in a greater proportion of late years, than 
attended the depression when it first began in 
1811 ; but the commencement, unquestionably, 
was occasioned by a defalcation in the supply of 
the precious metals ; and the progressive de- 
pression since is perfectly consistent with a pro- 
gressive increase in the supply of other commo- 
dities, conducing with the scantiness of the supply 
of the precious metals to depress prices. 

Since 1814, the official and declared value has 
been given, in our finance accounts, of every 
separate article exported. A list of them is sub- 
joined to the prefixed table, comprising every 
branch of home produce and manufacture. With 
the exception of a few articles, the official and 
declared value of which is always the same (um- 
brellas and parasols for example), the declared 
value of every article becomes less and less every 
year. Depression has fallen much more heavily 
upon some articles than upon others. The differ- 
ences of depression can be accounted for, from cir- 
cumstances applicable to each branch of manufac^ 



CHAP. II. TO BE ACCOUNTED FOR. 21 

ture ; but it can no more be explained how depres- 
sion should increase upon every article every year, 
than it can be explained how a great and sudden 
depression should have begun in the year 1811, 
otherwise than by a defalcation in the supply of 
gold and silver from the mines ; which, in point 
of fact, we know happened in that year, and 
still continues, to the extent of three fourths 
of the previous annual supply. Other causes 
may account for the differences, but no other 
cause can account for the commencement or the 
continuance of the depression, without the in- 
termission even of a single year. How much of 
the amount of the depression may arise from 
this cause, and how much from other causes, it 
is impossible to ascertain ; but there is one among 
our articles of export which may afford reason- 
able evidence in this respect, namely, tin un- 
wrought. The Cornwall mines are worked now 
exactly as they were in 1814. Tin is got no- 
where else in Europe ; and at present, from no 
other than the Cornwall and Banca mines. We 
have, therefore, in some measure a monopoly of 
the article, and are enabled to suit the supply to 
the demand, the increase of which, as it should 
seem, should be to increase the price. Yet the 
quantity exported has increased yearly since 
1814, until the three last years that it has fallen 
off. The finance accounts do not enable me to 

c 3 



22 MEASURE OF RISE IN THE PART I. 

state how much depression fell upon tin in com- 
mon with other articles of export in 1811 ; but 
since 1814 the depression amounts to upwards 
of 50/. per cent., which, as it appears to me, can 
be ascribed only to the defalcation in the supplies 
of gold and silver from the mines, increased by 
the consequences attending the return to cash 
payments in 1819, and the putting down of the 
small notes in 1826. Its depression, as stated in 
the finance accounts, accordingly appears to have 
been greatest in the years 1819, 1820, and 1821 ; 
again in the year 1826 ; and again in 1830 ; 
when the small notes were completely withdrawn 
from circulation. 

The general depression of the aggregate ex- 
ports appears to have been also greatest in these 
years. Still the general depression in these 
years is much less than the depression expe- 
rienced in 1811. The depression occasioned by 
the alteration of our currency, therefore, while it 
confirms the conclusion, that the commencement 
of the depression can alone be ascribed to a de- 
falcation in the supply of gold and silver from 
the mines, also shows that that defalcation must 
have had a much more powerful influence upon 
general prices than the alteration in the currency, 
to which all the distress we have suffered has 
been generally attributed. As the return to a 
metallic standard, for which preparation was 



CHAP. II. EXCHANGEABLE VALUE OF MONEY. 93 

made in 1819, could not have an effect beyond 
the difference between the mint and the market- 
price of gold, so the withdrawing of small notes 
from circulation could not exceed the amount of 
the exchangeable value of the gold required to 
take the place of the small notes. Either effect 
could only be temporary, and limited, in its 
operation in depressing industry. But restraints 
upon our money system, which I shall proceed 
now to notice, have a more extensive and a more 
lasting operation. 



C 4t 



m 



PART II. 

MONEY RESTRAINTS. 



CHAR I. 

THE BANK OF ENGLAND AND ITS EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE, 
WITH ITS IMMEDIATE CONSEOUENCE. 

The Bank of England was established in the 
year 1694, by an act* passed for granting several 
rates and duties on tonnage of ships and beer, 
&c, for securing certain recompenses, &c. to 
persons who should advance 1,500,000/. to the 
state, by which their majesties were authorised 
to grant a commission to take particular sub- 
scriptions for 1,200,000/., part of the said sum 
of 1,500,000/., to be paid to the receipt of the 
Exchequer ; in consideration of which, the sub- 
scribers were to receive an annuity of 100,000/. 
per annum, being interest at the rate of 8/. per 
cent., or 96,000/., and 4000/. for management : 
and their majesties were authorised, by letters 

* 5 W. & M. c. 20. 



CHAP. I. THE BANK OF ENGLAND. 25 

patent, to incorporate the contributors by the 
name of " The Governor and Company of the 
" Bank of England,*' with the power " of deal- 
" ing in bills of exchange, or buying or selling 
" bullion, gold, or silver ; or selling any goods, 
" wares, or merchandise whatsoever, which shall 
" really or bond fide be left with the said corpo- 
" ration for money lent and advanced thereon, 
" and which shall not be redeemed at the time 
" agreed on, or within three months thereafter." 

No exclusive privilege was granted to the 
Bank at its first establishment ; but three years 
afterwards, when it was enabled to enlarge its 
capital by receiving further subscriptions, it was 
provided, " that during the continuance of the 
" Governor and Company of the Bank of Eng- 
" land, no other Bank, or other Corporation, 
" Society, Fellowship, Company, or Constitu- 
" tion, in the nature of a Bank, shall be created 
" or established, permitted, suffered, counte- 
" nanced or allowed by Act of Parliament within 
" this kingdom."* 

It would seem, however, that some chartered 
companies, previously established, had attempted 
to carry on the business of banking : for some 
years afterwards, upon the recital of its act of 
establishment, and that " some corporations, by 

* 8& 9 W. 3. c.20. § 28. 



°2Q EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE OF PART II. 

" colour of the charters to them granted, and 
" other great number of persons, by pretence of 
" deeds or covenants united together, having 
" presumed to borrow great sums of money, and 
" therewith, contrary to the intent of the said 
" act, to deal as a Bank, to the apparent danger 
" of the established credit of the kingdom," the 
Bank got a clause introduced into an act of par- 
liament passed in the year 1710 # , by which it 
was enacted, that, " during the continuance of the 
" Governor and Company of the Bank of England, 
" it shall not be lawful for any body, politic or 
" corporate, whatsoever, created or to be created, 
" other than the said Governor and Company of 
" the Bank of England, or for other persons what- 
" soever, united or to be united in covenants or 
" partnership exceeding the number of six per- 
" sons, in that part of Great Britain called Eng- 
" land, to borrow, owe, or take up any sum or 
" sums of money on their bills or notes, payable 
ct at demand, or at less time than six months 
" from the borrowing thereof." 

This exclusive privilege could not fail to 
retard the establishment of banking companies 
in England ; and when they came to be estab- 
lished, they appear to have been so insignificant 
as to put forth notes for sums even under twenty 

* 6 Anne, c.22. §9. 



CHAP. I. THE BANK OF ENGLAND. Tj 

shillings. The first enactment we find concern- 
ing them is in the year 177<5, when an act was 
passed to prevent the issue of notes for sums 
under twenty shillings*, which were altogether 
prohibited ; and notes for sums under 51. were 
put under such regulations, two years afterwards, 
as made it impossible for bankers to issue them, t 
The consequence of this exclusive privilege 
has been, that, with some few exceptions t, bank- 

* 15 G. 3. c.51. f 17 G. 3. c.30. 

J The chief exceptions are in the county of Lancaster, 
but they have arisen from this very exclusive privilege. It 
being impossible that any six persons could be found equal 
to the money transactions of that large manufacturing and 
commercial county, a peculiar currency has been resorted 
to. All manufacturers in that county having correspondents 
in London to whom they send goods for the purpose of being 
sold, or direct remittances to be made for goods sold else- 
where, it suits them to draw upon London. This they 
generally do at short dates for sums of, or under, 501. Such 
bills of exchange form the main currency of Lancashire. 
Each drawer or payer endorsing his name, or the name of 
his firm upon them, as he uses them in making payments ; 
and before any such bill of exchange arrives in London for 
liquidation, the names of twenty or thirty indorsers appear 
on it, all of whom thus become sureties to each other and 
the public. Such bills of exchange are deposited with 
bankers, until they are required for making payments, Bank- 
ers in Lancashire are thus depositaries not of the money, but 
of the bills of exchange of others, which they issue upon the 
orders of their customers and at their risk ; and if this exclu- 
sive privilege shall be continued, mercantile men in other 
places, and even, perhaps, in the city of London, may contrive 
a similar system for themselves. 



28 CONSEQUENCES OF PART II* 

ing companies in England do not follow the 
business of banking as a substantive trade, but 
for the purpose of carrying on some other trade, 
to which the business of banking is aiding and 
assisting. 

Banking companies in England have thus not 
only the risks of banking to encounter, but also 
the risks to which such other trade is exposed. 

The Bank of England itself does not carry on 
the business of banking as a substantive concern. 
It is the factor as well as the banker of the state, 
and often advances money to this great customer 
to the prejudice of its other customers, and often 
to its own inconvenience, and sometimes even 
danger. It also deals largely in the purchase and 
sale of Exchequer bills, by which it expands or 
contracts its circulation at pleasure ; and the 
contraction is always more sudden than the ex- 
pansion, to the derangement of the general in- 
dustry of the country, and the not unfrequent 
ruin of individuals. 



CHAP. II. EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE. 29 



CHAP. II. 

FURTHER CONSEQUENCES OF THE EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE 
OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND. 

Besides the consequences adverted to, this ex- 
clusive privilege is liable to the following objec- 
tions : — 

1. The amount of currency in England per- 
haps does not exceed 60,000,000/., of which 
perhaps not so much as one third is in gold and 
silver ; but the sum of labour, and of the pro- 
ducts of labour, put and kept in motion by these 
60,000,000/. is perhaps not less than 600, 000,000/. ; 
a large portion of which (perhaps one half) is 
embodied in bills of exchange discounted by 
bankers ; so that the security of transactions does 
not consist in a metallic currency, as is generally 
supposed, but in the solidity of banking establish- 
ments based upon a metallic standard, all of 
which are rendered insecure by this exclusive 
privilege of the Bank of England. 

2. Of the paper currency of England perhaps 
not more than one half of it, or a third of the 
whole (paper and metallic), is in notes of the 
Bank of England. Its exclusive privilege, there- 



30 FURTHER CONSEQUENCES PART II. 

fore, renders insecure the paper currency of 
bankers issuing notes to an equal, if not a greater 
amount. But it further operates a much more 
extensive mischief, in rendering insecure de- 
posits made by individuals with bankers to an 
amount perhaps exceeding fifteen times the 
whole currency of England, both metallic and 
paper. 

3. Of the amount of these deposits an esti- 
mate may be formed by what was proved (as 
satisfactorily as such a fact admits of proof, unless 
returns were to be required from every banker, 
namely, by an estimate formed by persons exa- 
mined competent to make it,) to be the amount 
of deposits in Scotland in 1826 ; namely, that 
the sums deposited with bankers in Scotland ex- 
ceeded 20,000,000/., while from returns actually 
made, it appeared, that the whole paper circula- 
tion of Scotland was then under 3,200,000/. ; 
which, with the silver coin circulating there, 
formed the whole currency of Scotland, and 
could not amount in all to 4,000,000/. If the 
sum of currency in England can be taken to 
afford any rule for estimating the amount of de- 
posits with bankers in England, or the relative 
wealth of the countries be assumed for this pur- 
pose, deposits with bankers in England probably 
exceed 300,000,000/. They must, at all events, 
amount to a very large sum ; every part of which, 



CHAP. III. OF EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE. 31 

with the exception of deposits in the Bank, is 
rendered insecure by this exclusive privilege. 



CHAP. III. 

THE EFFECT OF THE EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE OF THE 
BANK, WITH REFERENCE TO THE AMOUNT OF ITS 
ISSUES. 

From the situation in which the Bank of Eng- 
land is placed by this exclusive privilege, the 
Bank is enabled to put forth more of paper cur- 
rency than the wants of the country require. 

The manner in which the Bank puts forth its 
notes is chiefly by discounting bills of exchange, 
and purchasing Exchequer bills ; but it not un- 
frequently also makes advances to Government 
to an inconvenient amount, and sometimes it ap- 
plies its means in a manner altogether inconsist- 
ent with the principles of banking. 

Bankers in the country put forth their paper 
also by discounting bills of exchange. But 
whatever paper bankers in the country put forth 
in discount forthwith returns to them in the way 
of deposit from their customers. But not so in 
the case of the Bank of England. Its notes go 



32 EFFECT AS TO ISSUE OF NOTES. PART II. 

in deposit chiefly with bankers in the cities of 
London or Westminister, who do not issue notes. 
In a district in the country, also, where there are 
a number of bankers issuing notes, who divide 
with each other the circulation of the district, it 
is the interest of each to prevent his rivals from 
encroaching upon the general circulation. But 
bankers in the city of London or Westminster 
have no interest in limiting the issues of the 
Bank of England, but the contrary ; for an in- 
crease of issue tends to increase the amount of 
their deposits. 

In the county of Lancaster*, again, where at 
first sight the currency used there appears to be 
the most expansive of all, because it seems to 
have no limit but the wants of the issuers, it 
is, nevertheless, very effectually limited in two 
ways : — 1. No one will grant a bill of exchange 
without receiving present value. 2. The cir- 
cumstance of its being payable in London im- 
poses a loss upon him, if he has not funds there 
to make the payment. 

A similar consequence restrains bankers in 
other parts of England, from over issuing ; be- 
cause wherever they do they have consequently 
a balance to pay to a rival banker, who will insist 
upon having either gold or bank notes, or a draft 
upon London. 

* See the nature of its currency stated, p. 27. 



CHAP. III. EXCHEQUER BILLS. 33 

But the mode by which the Bank can most 
conveniently extend the issue of its paper, is by 
the purchase of Exchequer bills ; because such 
bills also enable the Bank to contract its circu- 
lation, whenever it pleases, to the whole amount 
of the Exchequer bills which it holds. Its notes, 
which it gives in exchange for Exchequer bills, go 
into the hands of other bankers ; and the Ex- 
chequer bills which it purchases with its notes, 
go in deposit with the bank, in place of the notes 
it may have had in store ; but, whenever the 
Bank sells Exchequer bills, the whole of the notes 
which it receives in exchange for them are 
received by the Bank itself, and immediately 
destroyed. 

Every over issue by the Bank of England 
produces a corresponding increase of issue by 
bankers in the country, where more currency is 
required, in proportion to the fall in the change- 
able value of money through the over issue of 
the Bank ; which, however, is not ostensible 
until it produces an effect upon the foreign ex- 
changes, and then the Bank contracts the issues 
of its paper, in order to prevent a drain of gold.* 

* With two exceptions, every director of the Bank, who 
has been examined before the Secret or Select Committees 
which have sat on the affairs of the Bank, has shown himself 
altogether ignorant of the nature of exchanges. They have 
said, they cannot see how the issues of the Bank of England 

D 



S4f CONSEQUENCES OF OVER ISSUE. PART II. 

The operation and consequences of the over 
issue are most mischievous. Mercantile men are 
induced by the apparent plentifulness of money to 
extend their transactions, and for a time they 
are encouraged by the free discounts of the Bank, 
and of other bankers from the increased amount 
of their deposits ; but when the consequence fol- 
lows, which sooner or later must attend an over 
issue of paper currency, then mercantile men 
suffer distress and loss through the contraction of 
discounts, consequent upon the Bank contracting 
its issues ; and such distress is the greater that it 
is sudden and unexpected. 



can have any effect upon prices, or upon foreign exchanges. 
Mr. Ricardo has well expressed himself upon this point : — 
" A circulation can never be so abundant as to overflow, for 
" by diminishing its value, in the same proportion you will 
" increase its quantity, and by increasing its value, diminish 
" its quantity." — Principles of Political Economy, third 
edition, p. 422. The directors bring into the board-room 
a knowledge of the business in which they are engaged, but 
they know little else. Like other traders, they know the 
practice, but little of the principles, of trade, and even little 
of the practice beyond their own trade. 



CHAP. IV. OF THE EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE. 35 



CHAP. IV. 

THE REMOVAL OF THE EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE, 

If this exclusive privilege were at an end, the 
personal liability of shareholders in joint stock 
companies, which ought not to be removed, 
would probably render slow the formation of 
such companies for the purposes of banking in 
England. But the fear of competition would 
immediately induce caution and circumspection 
on the part of the directors of the Bank. Some 
of the banking companies in the country would 
probably coalesce, and, having a head establish- 
ment in the most convenient situation, would 
have branches in the places where they now 
carry on business, and, in other places also. 
Coalitions, perhaps, would also be formed among 
the bankers of London and Westminster, who 
would have a head office for the issuing of notes, 
and preserve their present establishments for 
receiving deposits. 

The receipt of deposits, which now constitute 
the chief source of the profit of bankers, was not 
contemplated at the formation of the Bank. 
Mr. Godfrey, who was the able assistant of 
Mr. Paterson in the institution of this great 
establishment, observes, in his " Brief Account 

d 2 



36 DEPOSITS. PART II. 

of the Bank of England." — "If the Bank can 
" circulate their foundation of 1,200,000/. with- 
" out having more than 300,000/. lying dead at 
" one time with another, the Bank will be, in 
" effect, as 900,000/. fresh money brought into 
" the nation." But the Bank now receives de- 
posits to a larger amount than its foundation or 
its now subscribed capital, not less than three 
fourth parts of which, perhaps, it may use in 
discounting bills of exchange (by doing which it 
best assists industry), or in the purchase of 
Exchequer bills, or in temporary advances to the 
state. 

If the deposits made with bankers in the cities 
of London and Westminster could be ascer- 
tained, the aggregate would be found much to 
exceed the amount of deposits made with the 
Bank of England. Deposits spring from Banking 
and form the most beneficial part of it. The sum 
of deposit which each person makes is as useful 
to him, and more safe, in the hands of his banker, 
than it would be in his own ; while by means of 
these deposits a fund is created, which is ren- 
dered useful to the purposes of general industry, 
without in the least degree impairing the use of 
any part of it to the persons by whom it is made. 
But the security for such deposits is lessened by 
the exclusive privilege of the Bank. 



CHAP. V. NATURE OF COIN, 37 



CHAP. V. 

THE NATURE OF COIN, AND OF BANK AND BANKERS 

NOTES. 



Coin of gold or silver denotes the quantity of pure 
gold or pure silver contained in the coin, which 
may thus be taken, in exchange, without the 
trouble of weighing or assaying. Gold or silver 
having been assumed by civilised nations as the 
measure of exchangeable value, coin of gold and 
silver is thus rendered conveniently useful for the 
purpose of making exchanges, and in the em- 
ployment of labour, which, as well as commo- 
dities, is measured by gold or silver. 

Bills of exchange have been resorted to for 
the purpose of making payments, as between one 
country and another, and between one individual 
and another in the same country. The ex- 
changeable value of the commodities for which 
they are granted is estimated in gold or silver ; 
and the bills granted in exchange for com- 
modities are payable in gold or silver, if required 
by the holder. Such bills of exchange are well 
known among merchants every where ; but a 
banker's note, such as it exists in the United 
Kingdom, is hardly known in any other country 
in Europe, though approaches have been made 

d 3 



38 banker's note part ii. 

to it in America. Our standard being gold, a 
banker's note is in the nature of a receipt for so 
much gold : not that gold is always given for 
it ; but no banker issues a note without receiving 
value for it, estimated in gold. 

The only part of the United Kingdom where 
banking has not been interfered with by the 
legislature (except that no note shall be issued 
for less than twenty shillings) is Scotland, and 
there the most perfect security has been the con- 
sequence of the most perfect freedom. The 
currency of Scotland has attained the perfection 
described by Mr. Ricardo, but which he was not 
aware actually existed : — " A currency is in its 
" most perfect state, when it consists wholly of 
" paper money, but of paper money of an equal 
M value with the gold which it professes to re- 
" present. The use of paper in place of 
" gold, substitutes the cheapest, in place of the 
" most expensive, medium ; and enables the 
" country, without loss to any individual, to ex- 
" change all the gold which it before used for 
" this purpose for raw materials, utensils, and 
" food, by the use of which both its wealth and 
" and its enjoyments are increased." He adds : — 
" Experience shows that neither a state nor a 
" bank ever has had the unrestricted power of 

* Principles of Political Economy, third edit. p. 432. 



CHAP. V. IN SCOTLAND. 39 

" issuing paper money, without abusing that 
" power : in all states, therefore, the issue of 
" paper money ought to be under some check 
" or control ; and none seems so proper for 
" that purpose, as that of subjecting the issuers 
" of paper money to the obligation of paying 
" their notes either in gold coin or bullion." 

Silver is necessary for the purpose of making 
payments under twenty shillings ; but gold is 
hardly ever seen in Scotland, where a banker's 
note is preferred to it. A banker's note in Scot- 
land has every quality of the coin of the realm ; 
for it is taken in exchange as money in every part 
of Scotland. A banker's note in Scotland is not 
only superior in that respect to a banker's note 
in England, which has only a limited circulation, 
in the neighbourhood of the place where it is 
issued ; but it is even superior in this respect to 
a note of the Bank of England, which does not 
circulate generally in the country of England, 
where the note of a banker known in the neigh- 
bourhood is preferred to it. 

Banking appears to have extended itself in 
Scotland sooner than it did in England, and to 
have made its commencement, as England did, 
by the issue of notes under twenty shillings, 
which were prohibited in Scotland ten years 
before they were prohibited in England.* For- 

* 5G.3. c.49. 
d 4 



40 CONSEQUENCE OF FREEDOM. PART II. 

tunately for Scotland, her banking operations 
escaped observation from the passing of that act 
in 1765, until the year 1826, when the proscrip- 
tion of small notes in England, in that year, was 
also fortunately prevented from being extended 
to Scotland. 

The consequence of this freedom had been, 
that, previously to the present year, three banking 
companies * only, who issued notes, have stopped 
payment in Scotland, all of whom paid twenty 
shillings in the pound. The banker who 
became bankrupt in the present year had the 
vice, common to bankers in England, of not 
carrying on the business of banking as a sub- 
stantive trade, and his banking engagements 
were to a comparatively small amount. 

Seeing that deposits with bankers in Scotland 
were proved to exceed 20,000,000/., no security 
for their notes, that could have been required 



* Thirty-one banking companies, issuing notes in Scotland, 
were the number returned to the Small Note Committee, in 
1826; but the number of companies conveys a very inade- 
quate impression with regard to the business of banking in 
that country. The Bank of Scotland was proved to have 
sixteen branches, at as many different places ; the British 
Linen Company twenty-seven ; the Commercial Banking 
Company thirty-one. These were the greatest number ; but 
almost all the thirty-one banking companies had some branches, 
so that no place in Scotland, of any note, was without a bank- 
ing establishment. 



CHAP. VI. REVULSION OF 1825-6. 41 

from bankers, would have been of any avail.* 
But the course of transactions consequent upon 
a free system of banking, has practically worked 
out a security for the issue of notes in Scotland, 
which no legislative provision could have at- 
tained. 

The cash credits in Scotland, for which ample 
security is always taken, were proved in 1826 to 
exceed 5,000,000/., while the whole paper cir- 
culation of Scotland was proved to be under 
3,200,000/. ; so that the security taken for cash 
credits, in Scotland, was found to be much more 
than equal to the whole paper circulation of 
Scotland. 



CHAP. VL 

THE REVULSION OF 1825-6. 

The revulsion of 1825-6 was similar to the re- 
vulsion of 1815-16, which last proved as fatal to 

* Many persons who advocate the freedom of banking 
propose that bankers should give security for the issue of 
their notes, forgetting that such a regulation is a restriction, 
and an infraction of the very principle they advocate. Ad- 
verting to the amount of deposits and discounts, any security 
that would be required would be unavailing ; with freedom 
of banking it is useless. 



42 CAUSES OF REVULSION. PART II, 

bankers in England as 1825-6. The number of 
bankers who became bankrupt at the former pe- 
riod was even greater than at the latter, at least 
up to the period when the return was made.* 

Capital applied to war purposes was set idle 
by the termination of the war. The continuing 
defalcation in the supply of gold and silver from 
the mines continued to raise the exchangeable 
value of money, whereby so much less of capital 
and currency became necessary for the purposes 
of industry ; but this consequence of a rise in 
the exchangeable value of money was not ad- 

* The number of bankers in England who became bank- 
rupt in 

1815 were - - -26 

1816 - - -37 

63 

1825 - - - 37 

1826 - - - 22 

- — 59 

The numbers in 1815-16 are taken from the Appendix to 
the Lords' Report, 1819, p. 426. The numbers in 1825-6 
are taken from vol. xxii. of the Sessional Papers of the 
House of Commons, for 1826, p. 6.; which, however, gave 
only the return down to the end of February, 1826. 

Scotland evinced the superiority of her banking establish- 
ments at both periods. None of them failed in 1825-6 ; and 
the only one that failed in 1815-16 was the Falkirk Union 
Banking Company, a company of little note, the whole of 
whose debts proved amounted to no more than 51,009/. 5s. 8d. t 
of which 45/. per cent had been paid at the period of the 
return. (Appendix to Report of Small Note Committee, 
1826, No. 5.) 



CHAP. VI. CAUSES OF REVULSION. 43 

verted to, and the Bank continued to issue as 
usual. These were the causes of the revulsion 
in 1815-1 6, which induced mercantile men to 
embark largely in purchases of colonial produce 
and other commodities, for which it was ex- 
pected there would have been a great demand 
upon the Continent from the return of peace. 
But depression of price having come upon all 
commodities, from the continuing rise in the 
exchangeable value of money, distress was ex- 
perienced upon the Continent as well as here ; 
and such expectations having been disappointed, 
those who had entertained them were not able to 
stand their ground, and involved with them the 
bankers who had discounted their bills of ex- 
change. 

Similar causes produced the revulsion of 
1825-6. We had the most abundant harvests 
ever known in 1820 and in 1822. The con- 
sequence was, that we imported of foreign corn, 
in 1821, only 257,654 quarters ; and in 1822, 
no more than 125,804 quarters. The import- 
ation in 1823 was brought down even to 53,641 
quarters ; and in 1824 it reached only 610,037 
quarters. But in 1819 we had imported 
1,707,510 quarters, and in 1820, 1,341,850 
quarters.* The capitals required for these large 

* Pari. Paper, 1832, No. 426. 



44 CAUSES OF REVULSION. PART II. 

importations, thus rendered useless, in 1821, 
1822, 1823, and 1824, run riot in quest of em- 
ployment in 1825, when the defalcation in the 
supply of gold and silver from the mines still 
continued, without a corresponding diminution in 
the issue of bank notes.* To this cause of rise 
in the exchangeable value of money was added 
the further cause arising from the cheapness of 

* When these sheets went to press, no account had ap- 
peared of the issues of the Bank in the last week of February 
in the present year ; but it is understood not much to have 
exceeded 17,000,000/. If this be so, the Bank has pro- 
nounced its own condemnation. 

I am no foeman to the Bank ; but I wish to render it 
useful, and to prevent it from continuing to be mischievous 
to the country, and to make it more beneficial withal to its 
own proprietors. I have elsewhere said, " There should be 
" but one receiver and one payer, with whom the responsi- 
" bility of every payment should rest. Upon this principle, 
" the Exchequer should merge in the Treasury ; which should 
" receive such additional assistance from officers in the Ex- 
" chequer capable of active service, and such others, as the 
" new and increasing duties of this superintending esta- 
" blishment require. All public monies should be paid into 
" the Bank of England, upon accounts to be opened under 
" the direction of the Lords of the Treasury, subject to their 
" order, and that of the persons authorised by them (with a 
" proper check and control), to operate upon such accounts. 
" The Bank of England should be to the state what a private 
" banker is to an individual ; and the same certainty, regu- 
" larity, and simplicity of account should be introduced into 
" every department of the public service that is observed in 
" the well managed concerns of an active and prudent indi- 
" vidual." {Revision of our Fiscal Code, 1828.) 



CHAP. VI. IMPOLICY OF INTERFERENCE. 45 

abundance, and the continuance of the issue of 
bank notes as usual, in ignorance of all these 
causes which rendered less currency necessary. 
All sorts of schemes were in consequence re- 
sorted to, in order to employ this excess of 
capital and currency. Many of those who em- 
barked in them became involved ; and bankers 
who had discounted their paper were involved 
with them. 

Capital and activity will always seek employ- 
ment ; but they are not always guided by know- 
ledge and skill, which the legislature cannot 
impart, even if it possessed both ; nor are they 
always exerted under favourable circumstances, 
which the legislature can still less command, 
though, unfortunately for industry, it is too apt 
to make the attempt. In periods of prosperity, 
however, the exuberance of capital and activity 
is termed enterprise ; in periods of revulsion it 
is termed speculation : but the principle is still 
the same. The consequences of interference 
may teach us the wisdom of non-interference 
with the natural course of things. Whenever 
we attempt to regulate matters which an Al- 
mighty Providence has so constituted as to 
regulate themselves, results never fail to follow 
altogether different from what we expected, and 
oftentimes contrary to what we intended. 

The revulsion in 1825-6 did not differ from 



46 IMPOLICY OF INTERFERENCE. PART II* 

the revulsion of 1815-16, nor much from that of 
1810-11, or even from that of 1793-4. But 
" the principal source of it was said to be found 
" in the rash spirit of speculation which had per- 
" vaded the country for some time, supported, fos- 
" tered, and encouraged by the country banks*," 
who, in truth, were the victims, not the causes, 
of it : and, at all events, small notes, which have 
been assimilated, but have no more resemblance 
to coin than bills of exchange have to com- 
modities, had no share in producing it ; nor 
could the prohibition of issuing them improve 
the paper of bankers, or enable the country 
parts of England to sustain a currency of gold. 

Under a contrary impression, however, the 
minister violated the law, by commanding the 
Commissioners of Stamps to suffer no more small 
notes to be stamped : and the legislature was 
prevailed upon to cause them to be discontinued 
after April, 1829. t 

The minister was not less violent against the 
exclusive privilege of the Bank, the removal of 
which certainly would have improved the paper 
of bankers ; but here he was not equally suc- 
cessful. The Bank would only consent to 

* Letter of the First Lord of the Treasury, and the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, in January 1826, vol. xix. 
Finance Accounts. 

f 7 Geo. 4. c.6. 



CHAP. VII. METALLIC STANDARD. 47 

relinquish its exclusive privileges sixty-five 
miles beyond London : and even what they 
appeared to give up was in a great measure 
preserved, by a clause which prohibited any of 
the joint stock companies, which the Act might 
originate, from drawing upon London for sums 
of or under 50/. ; thereby giving a monopoly in 
such paper to the existing banking companies, 
who were supposed to be in default, to the ex- 
clusion of the better companies, which it was 
passed to establish.* 



CHAP. VII. 



METALLIC STANDARD. 



Previous to 1816, gold and silver coin were 
equally a legal tender, to any amount, in Eng- 
land ; but, since that year, gold coin has been 
declared the only legal tender for sums above 
forty shillings. t 

Another important alteration made in this 
year was, that our pound of Mint silver, in place 
of being coined into 62s. as formerly, from 
the time of Queen Elizabeth, was directed to be 

* 7 G. 4. g. 6. t 56G. 3. c.68. § 11, 12. 



48 NEW MINT REGULATIONS. PART II. 

coined into 66s. of which, however, 6%s. only 
were to be delivered from the Mint. # 

The effect of this regulation was, to prevent 
any person from carrying silver to the Mint to be 
coined, because no person would carry a pound 
of silver to the Mint to have -fa parts of it 
retained. 

The silver coin, however, being estimated in 
gold, this prevention is of no further conse- 
quence than as it throws upon the government 
the duty of providing a sufficiency of silver coin, 
without having the means of ascertaining what 
will be required. 

So long as small notes were in circulation, 
these, in some measure, regulated the amount of 
silver coin ; because bankers in the country, 
issuing small notes, were obliged to keep a stock 
of silver to meet demands upon them ; while 
their being obliged to keep such a stock of silver 
tended to limit the issue of notes. But, not small 
being now obliged, they no longer keep such a 
stock of silver, and the country parts of England 
are thus distressed from the want of means to 
make small payments. 

A standard of gold, however, is preferable to 
a standard of silver, in this respect, that it is less 
liable to change ; but a poor country cannot 

* 56 Geo. 3. c.68. § 11, 12. 



CHAP. VII. CONSEQUENCES. 49 

sustain a currency of gold ; and though England 
be a rich country, yet many parts of it are poor, 
particularly the agricultural districts, which thus 
suffer from a want of silver currency, and also 
from a want of gold currency, which they are 
unable to retain. Gold travels up to London, in 
the same manner, and for the same reason, that 
Bank of England notes return thither. Both 
may come in to bankers in the country, who, 
however, do not issue either, but send both to 
their correspondents in London, as remittances, 
on account of the bills of exchange which they 
draw upon such correspondents. 

In this situation, one of two things is unavoid- 
able. Either we must adopt a standard of silver, 
and again coin our pound of Mint silver into sixty- 
two parts or shillings ; or, preserving our gold 
standard, with our present Mint regulations as 
to silver coin, we must again allow small notes 
to be issued.* 

* Many persons have suggested that the value of gold 
should be declared by law to be 4/. per ounce. The sug- 
gestion shows that those who make it know nothing of the 
matter. By our Mint regulations, the exchangeable value of 
gold is fixed as in regard to silver, in the proportion of 15.2096 
to 1 ; and our pound of Mint silver, consisting of 12 ounces, 
having been, previous to 1816, coined into 62 parts or shil- 
lings, and each shilling representing 12 pence, our Mint 
price of silver is said to be 5s. 2d. an ounce ; so that an ounce 
of gold, estimated in silver at 5s. 2d. an ounce, is exactly 

E 



30 ISSUE OF SMALL NOTES. PART II. 

If the exclusive privilege of the Bank of 
England shall be withheld from it, upon the 
renewal of its charter, whereby an over issue of 
paper could not take place, I should say that 
small notes should again be allowed to be issued; 
because the same sanction which keeps notes of 
a large denomination sound also keeps notes of 
a small denomination sound, namely, their con- 
vertibility into coin at the option of the holder. 
A banker's note, being in the nature of a receipt 
for so much gold, while gold is our standard, 
there is no reason which I have been able to 
discover why a receipt should not be granted for 
a small sum as well as a large sum, but the 
contrary. 



Si. 17 s. 10^6?. By SI. 17 s. 10^., therefore, we mean an 
ounce of Mint gold ; and whether we call this ounce 4/. or 
SI. 17 s. 10^d., it will still be an ounce of gold, and nothing 
else. Before we can, however, call an ounce of gold 4/., we 
must alter the whole of our Mint regulations ; and we should 
alter them with no benefit whatever, but the contrary : we 
should depreciate the standard, and raise money-prices 
according to the depreciated standard : but an ounce of gold 
would still be an ounce of gold, and the exchangeable value 
of gold would be still the same. 

Our ounce of gold at SI. 17 s. lO^d. now regulates the 
exchangeable value of our silver coinage, though at 5s. 6d. 
per ounce, of which SI. 2s., only are delivered from the Mint. 
Our silver coin is, in truth, now nothing but counters, and 
copper counters would do equally well, if it were not that we 
should be inundated with counterfeits. 



CHAP. VII. PERFECTION OF CURRENCY. 51 

Our currency will then attain that perfection 
which is described by Mr. Ricardo. The ex- 
changeable value of our paper currency will 
always be equal to the exchangeable value of our 
gold coin. All the amount of gold now re- 
quired to supply the want of small notes will 
return to the general purposes of commerce ; and, 
with small notes, a silver currency will return to 
the country parts of England, where it is most 
wanted, for the purposes of industry. 



E 2 



52 



PART III. 

CORN LAWS' RESTRAINTS. 



CHAP. I. 

ERRORS OF THE AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING 
INTERESTS WITH RESPECT TO THE CORN LAWS. 

^.he agricultural and manufacturing interests 
are both in error with respect to the operation 
of the Corn Laws. The home growers of corn 
believe these laws afford them a protection ; 
whereas the laws passed in and since 1815 have 
deprived them of the protection they formerly 
enjoyed. The manufacturers again conceive, that 
the operation of these laws is to restrain the 
importation of foreign corn, and to prevent them 
from exchanging the products of their industry 
for foreign produce ; whereas the effect of the 
Corn Laws since 1815 has been to increase the 
importation of foreign corn. 

This will appear manifest from the annexed 
table, showing the imports into, and exports from, 
Great Britain of all sorts of grain, from 1773 to 



[To/ace page 52. 

Showing the Imports iniods of Five Years after the first Three Years, and 
again into Periods of of Wheat in Great Britain, and the Highest and 
Lowest Price at Danl 



unties paid on 
Exportation. 



H 



\£ s. d, 
In the Three Years en),979 1 
In the Five Years endi, 462 11 9 
Ditto - 1,241 10 7| 
During which the 13 G 

in operation, which (,683 3 7 

to be imported at 6d\ 

the price was at or ; 

quarter, and granted i 

per quarter upon exp 

wheat was under 44s. 



During which, and 
31 G. 3. c. 80. 



"1,139 



,448 19 



15 
was r 695 15 

which raised the impcj'gjg ^ 

wheat to 50s. per quj* 

the duty was 2s. 6d., 

reached 54s., at or ab 

duty was Qd. per quai 

During which, after 18C j^q iq 
c. 109. was in ope' «g k 
raised the importable 
per quarter, when at } 
low 66s. the duty ws 
when at or above 66s 
Qd. per quarter 



In 1815 the 55 G. 3. c. 
operation, which prop 
portation of wheat till 
per quarter, was variec 
c. 60., which admitted 
when the price reach 
duty of 12s. 



1775 
1780 
1785 



9f 

11 



0| 



11| 



1790 
1795 
1800 



Highest and Lowest 

Average Price of 

Wheat in Great 

Britain. 



S. d. 

51 1 

46 

52 3 



s. d. 

47 8 

34 6 

41 4 



51 

74 
113 



11 

2 
7 



1805 
1810 
1815 



118 3 
106 2 
125 3 



39 2 
42 11 
50 3 



56 6 
73 3 
64 4 



1820 


94 9 — 65 7 


1825 


70 7 — 39 11 


1830 


76 7 — 50 9 



Highest and Lowest 

Price of Wheat at 

Dantzic. 



S. d. 

41 8 

32 6 

35 2 



s. d. 

37 6 

24 2 

30 



On the 15th 
into operation, 
per quarter, up 
diminishing Is. 
reaches 73s., wh 



POOR-RATE. 

Last Year - - .=£6,798,888 

In 1815 

Increase 



5,072,028 
- ,£1,726,860 



48 3 — 34 
58 4 — 34 4 
72 6 — 31 2 



73 5 — 49 5 
63 4 — 44 8 
50 10 — 32 11 



92 1—42 8 
36 0—18 8 
72 11 — 18 10 



* The amount of dutie^ in 1789 and 1790. 

t The Custom-bouse tfcount, the exportations in the five years ending in 1815 
will be 1,196,602 quarter) 

| Bounties ceased in lfiexisting act on the 15th July 1828. 

§ Of which 316,448 qn 

11 The exports since 18] be no more than £101,199, and in the five years ending 
in 1830 only =£86,309. 



A TABLE, 



[To face page 52. 



Showing the Imports into and Exports from Great Britain of all sorts of Grain, &c. from 1773 to 1830 (both inclusive), divided into Periods of Five Years after the first Three Years, and 
again into Periods of Fifteen Years ; showing also the Duties received and Bounties paid, and the Highest and Lowest Average Price of Wheat in Great Britain, and the Highest and 
Lowest Price at Dantzic in each Period of Five Years ; with an Abstract of the Laws passed in and since 1773. 



Imported Quarters. 



Iniiii 1 1- . ■ 1 nmI AM ntliei- I"„rt- 



HiL'lK-.t and Lowest 

,A\ eraec Price of 

Wheat in Great 

Britain. 



Highest and I ..u.sl 

Price of Wheat at 

Dantzic, 



In the Three Years ending 

In the Five Years ending 

Ditto ... 

During which the 13 G. 3. c. 43. was 
in operation, which allowed wheat 
to be imported at Gd. of duty when 
the price was at or above 48s. per 
quarter, and granted a bounty of 5s. 
per quarter upon exportation when 
wheat was under 44s. per quarter, j 

During which, and until 1804, the 
31 G. 3. c. 80. was in operation, 
which raised the importable price of 
wheat to 50s. per quarter, at which 
the duty was 2s. 6(1., until the price 
reached 54s., at or above which the 
duty was Gil. per quarter 

During which, after 1804, the 44 G. 3. 
c. 109. was in operation, which 
raised the importable price to 63s. 
per quarter, when at which and be- 
low 66s. the duty was 2s. 6rf., and 
when at or above 66s. the duty was 
Gd. per quarter 

In 1815 the 55 G. 3. c. 26. came into"! 
operation, which prohibited the im- 
portation of wheat till it reached 80s. 
per quarter, was varied by the 3 G. 4. 
c. 60., which admitted of importation 
when the price reached 70s., with a 
duty of 12s. - - - 



272,037 
373,791 
616,776 



2,362,202 
1,811,480 
2,130,123 



2,634,239 
2,185,271 
2,746,899 



243,130 

1,385,322 

941,(884 



£ s. 

10,979 1 2 J 

272,462 11 9 

160,241 10 7i 



1,262,604 



6,303,805 



2,570,076 



443,683 3 7 



1,596,659 
2,009,333 
1,543,580 



1,923,994 
4,402,314 
6,131,246 



3,520,653 
6,411,647 
7,674,826 



1,228,594 
828,282 
415,499 



" 18,864 2 5J 
97,194 10 11 
86,322 19 9 



647,294 18 2 



248,139 15 4 
97,695 15 9 
5,613 7 11 



s. d. 

51 1- 
46 0- 

52 3- 



5,149,572 



17,607,126 



2,472,375 



202,381 13 lj 



351,448 19 



1,428,278 
3,153,638 
3,649,396 



5,935,906 
3,780,337 
2,282,297 



7,365,184 
6,933,975 
5,931,693 



703,011 

527,194 

t 957,281 



79,143 17 
205,443 14 
59,962 8 



2,206,246 11 10J 
267 19 11 



16,140 12 2J 
78 5 ll| 



8,231,312 



11,998,540 



20,230,852 



2,187,486 



344,550 7 



5,166,506 
8,252,044 
10,874,059 



8,700,467 
2,104,714 
11,277,466 



13,866,973 
10,356,958 
22,151,525 



1,099,436 



484,857 1 9 
3,098,614 9 14 



118 3- 
106 2- 
125 3- 



94 9- 
70 7- 
76 7- 



s. d. 
• 47 8 
•34 
-41 



-39 

-42 11 
-50 



•56 
■73 
64 4 



■39 11 
■50 



s. d. 

41 8- 

32 6- 

35 2- 



73 5- 
63 4- 
50 10- 



92 1- 
36 0- 
72 11- 



-34 
-34 
-31 2 



-49 
-44 8 
-32 11 



■ 42 8 
■18 8 
■18 10 



24,292,609 



22,082,647 



46,375,456 



3,583,471 10 lOJ 



On the 15th of July 1828 the present law (9 G. 4. c. 60.) came 
into operation, which allows wheat to be imported when at 62s. 
per quarter, upon payment of ll.4s.8d. per quarter of duty, 
diminishing Is. for each Is. of increase of price, until the latter 
reaches 73s., when Is. only of duty becomes payable. 



1800 - 
1810 - 
1820 ■ - 
1830 - 



POPULATION. 

Numbers. Increase. 

- 10,942,046 

- 12,596,830 1,654,184 

- 14,391,631 1,794,801 

- 16,537,398 2,145,597 



POOR-RATE, 

Last Year 
In 1815 

Increase 



- ^6,798,888 

- 5,072,028 

- .£1,726,860 



* The amount of duties received upon importation is not - 

t The Custom-bouse books having been destroyed by fire 
will be 1,196,602 quarters. 

i Bounties ceased in 1814, and duties in 1815, until the latterw 

§ Of which 316,446 quarters were from Ireland. 

II The exports since 1820 appear no otherwise than by the Finance Accounts, 
m ISS0 only ^86,309. 



record previous to 17S9. This sum is therefore only the 
1813, there is no return of the exports for that year. If ( 



nount of the duties received in 1789 and 1790. 

e fourth be added on that account, the exportations i 



the five years ending in 1815 
renewed by the 3 G. 4. c. 60., which continued until the commencement of the existing act on the 15th July 1828. 

which the official value in the five years ending in 1825 appears to be no more than £101, 199, and in the five years ending 



CHAP. I. STATE OF THE IMPORTATIONS. 53 

1830, both inclusive, which are divided into 
periods of five years after the first three years, 
and again into periods of fifteen years ; showing 
also the duties received and bounties paid, and 
the highest and lowest average price of wheat in 
Great Britain, and the highest and lowest price 
at Dantzic in each period of five years, with an 
abstract of the laws passed in and since 1773. 
The numbers of the population are also stated, 
with the poor-rates in 1815 and in 1830. 

This table thus presents, at one view, all the 
facts from which any conclusion can be drawn. 
It thence appears that, from the year 1773 to 
the year 1815, the home growth of corn in Great 
Britain, indicated by the imports and exports, 
not only kept pace with the increase of the popu- 
lation, but outstript it, with the exception of the 
years of scarcity, which began in 1794-5, and 
continued, with little intermission, until 1801-g. 
But what followed the years of scarcity proves 
the beneficial operation of the laws which then 
prevailed, inasmuch as the importations of corn 
in the five years, ending in 1805, were upwards 
of 300,000 quarters less than they were in the 
five years ending in 1800 ; and in the five years 
ending in 1815, the importations were upwards 
of 1,700,000 quarters less than they were in the 
five years ending in 1800. 

The average amount of the importations in the 

e 3 



54 STATE OF THE IMPORTATIONS. PART III. 

five years ending in 1815 had come down to very 
nearly the average amount in the three years 
ending in 1775.* Deducting exports, the yearly 
average, in 

Quarters. 

1815, was - - - 947,418 

and in 1775 - - - 757,036 



Difference only - - 190,382 

If the operation of the laws which prevailed 
previous to 1815 had been suffered to continue, 
there can hardly be a doubt that the home growth 
of corn would have still further improved ; but, 
in 1815, we passed a restraining law, which we 
have altered twice for the worse since ; and the 

* The Importations in the three years ending Quarters, 
in 1775 amounted to - - 2,634,239 

Deduct Exports - - - 243,130 

2,357,109 



Yearly Average - - 757,036 

The amount of the Importations in the Jive years 

ending in 1815 was - - 5,931,693 

Deduct Exports - - - 1,196,602 



4,737,091 



Yearly average - *• 947,418 



CHAP. II. CONSEQUENCE OF ALTERATION. 55 

consequence has been, that the importations in 
the very first five years of the restrained period 
were very nearly three times the amount, and the 
importations in the five years ending 1830 were 
upwards of four times the amount, of the import- 
ations in the five years ending in 1815 ; and the 
importations may be expected to continue to in- 
crease ; for, in the year 1831, the foreign import- 
ations were upwards of 1,000,000 of quarters 
above the amount of the preceding year.* 



CHAP. II. 

PROTECTION AFFORDED BY THE CORN LAWS PREVIOUS 
TO 1815. THE REVERSE SINCE. 

The trade in corn was virtually free in Great 
Britain from the year 1773 to the year 1815. 
By the law passed in 177^ *> wheat was import- 
able when at or above 48s., on payment of a duty 

Quarters* 
* In 1831, we imported from abroad - 3,528,998 

and in 1830 - - 2,427,750 



Increase in 1831 - - 1,101,238 



See Pari. Paper, 1832, No. 89. 
f 13 G. 3. c.43. 

E 4 



£6 CONSEQUENCE OF FREE TRADE. PART II. 

of 6d. per quarter, and other grain at equally 
low duties. The importable price was raised by 
the law of 1791*, whereby wheat was made im- 
portable when at 50s., on payment of a duty of 
2s. 6d. per quarter ; and when at 54s., on pay- 
ment of 6d. per quarter. The importable price 
was again raised in 18041, when wheat was not 
importable until it reached 63s. , when importa- 
tion was allowed on payment of 2s. 6d. per quar- 
ter ; and when wheat rose to 66s. per quarter ; 
it was importable on payment of 6d. per quarter, 
and, by these two statutes, proportionate import- 
ation prices and duties were assigned to other 
grain. 

Though importable prices were fixed by all 
these acts of Parliament, yet, from the fall which 
then continued to take place in the exchangeable 
value of money, the prices fixed ceased to have 
any operation whatever as importable prices ; and 
grain was at all times importable upon payment 
of the duties fixed by these statutes, which gene- 
rally were the low duties. 

" The necessary consequence (as observed by 
" the Agricultural Committee of 1821) of the 
" trade in corn having been virtually open with 
" the Continent, and the importation allowed at 
" prices merely nominal during the period of 

* 31 G. 3. c.80. t 44 G. 3. c. 109. 



CHAP. II. OPERATION OF FREE DEMAND. 57 

" forty years, has been, that the general price of 
" the shipping ports on the Continent has not, 
" upon an average, been materially lower than 
" the price in England, except to the amount 
" of the charges to be incurred in bringing the 
" foreign corn to the markets of this country." 

It had been remarked by the Committee on 
the Corn Laws, in 1814, that "the price of wheat 
" at the shipping ports on the Baltic is entirely 
" regulated by the demand in the other countries 
" in Europe ;" and the remark might have been 
extended to all corn whatever, the price of which, 
like the price of every thing else, is regulated 
by the demand for it. But this effect is pro- 
duced only when the demand is suffered to 
operate. It was, then, by the operation of the 
great demand for corn in this country being 
allowed to operate freely at all the shipping ports 
on the Continent that the price of corn previous 
to 1815 was always the same therewith the price 
here, with the difference only of the expense of 
bringing it here. 

But, in 1815, we passed a law*, which said that 
wheat should not be imported at all until it 
reached 80s. per quarter ; which we altered in 
1822, by saying it should be importable when at 
70s., upon the payment of a duty of l&s.t ; and, 

* 55 G. 3. c. 26. f 3 G. 4. c. 60. 



58 REVERSE AFTER 1815. PART III. 

in 1828, we adopted an ascending and descending 
scale of duties, of which 62s. per quarter was the 
pivot ; at which price a duty of 1/. 4s. 8d. per 
quarter was payable, diminishing as the price 
rose until it reached 73s., when Is. of duty only 
was payable* ; and similar provisions were made 
by all these laws for the importation of other 
grain. 

The consequence has been, that the price of 
wheat at Dantzic, which, as stated by the Agri- 
cultural Committee of 1821, for forty years ending 
in 1814, had not, upon an average, been mate- 
rially lower than the price in England, except as 
to the amount of the charges to be incurred in 
bringing it to this country (which average ap- 
pears, from the annexed table, to have been 
about 12s. per quarter), was, after 1815, some- 
times within 3s. of the price in Great Britain, 
and sometimes upwards of 30s. under it; that 
is, when our great demand operated at Dantzic, 
it brought the price nearly to the price here : 
and when it ceased to operate, the price fell in 
proportion to its previous rise. 

It thus appears manifest how the home grower 
of corn enjoyed a protection under the laws 
which prevailed previous to 1815, of which he 
has been deprived by the laws which have pre- 

* 9G.4. c.60. 



CHAP. III. PROTECTION WITHDRAWN. 59 

vailed since. Under the former laws, the price 
of corn at the shipping ports being always the 
same with the price here, with the difference 
only of the expense of bringing it here, a risk 
was constantly presented which the dealer in 
foreign corn was afraid to encounter. But now, 
when the price at the shipping ports falls so 
much, he is encouraged then to purchase corn 
abroad, which he stores in warehouses at home, 
for the purpose of foreign trade ; and he has at 
all times a quantity of foreign corn ready to 
enter for home consumption, whenever the price 
reaches the importable price : and, as the home 
growth diminishes (which it necessarily does 
under the operation of the existing law), the 
trade of the dealer in foreign corn becomes the 
more certain and gainful, and the situation of 
the home grower becomes the more uncertain 
and hazardous. 



CHAP. IIL 



CONSEQUENCES OF RESTRAINING CORN LAWS TO THE 

HOME GROWER. 

The first consequence of the restraining laws 
passed since 1815 has been to deprive the home 



60 LOSS OF EXPORT. PART III. 

grower of corn of the foreign market, which, 
previous to 1815 T it appears from the annexed 
table, he enjoyed to the extent of one sixth and 
more of the quantity imported ; a fact confirmed 
by the Agricultural Committee of 1821.* 

The amount of export in the fifteen years 
ending in 1800 was very little less than the 
amount of the export in the thirteen years end- 
ing in 1785 ; so that it appears, that the export 
in the fifteen years which followed 1785 had im- 
proved, and the export in the fifteen years ending 
in 1815 was very nearly equal to the export in 
the fifteen preceding years.t Whether the state 
of our agriculture, therefore, is to be judged of 
from the continuance of the diminution of the 
imports of corn, or the prevalence of its exports, 
both afford unerring evidence of its improvement 
from 1773 to 1815. The export did not fall off 

* The Agricultural Committee of 1821, state our total 
imports to have amounted to 30,438,189 quarters, in the 
forty years ending in 1814 ; during which forty years, they 
also state our total exports to have been 5,801,440 quarters. 
It appears, from the annexed table, that, in the forty-two years 
ending in 1815, our total imports of corn were 45,404,387 
quarters ; and our total exports 7,229,937 quarters, which 
gives nearly the same proportion. 

■f The export in 1813, in which the Custom House was 
burnt, could not be given. If to the amount returned one- 
fourth be added to the exports in the five years ending in 
1815, the exports in these fifteen years amount to 2,426,807 
quarters, which brings the amount to within 45,568 quarters 
of the export of the fifteen years ending in 1800. 



CHAP. III. EFFECT UPON HOME INDUSTRY. 6l 

to much in the five years ending in 1820 as is 
did afterwards ; because the depreciation bf our 
currency, until that year, kept our bullion prices 
on a par with those on the Continent : but now 
our export of corn has dwindled to nothing. 

This consequence alone would afford a suf- 
ficient reason why the present corn laws should 
be repealed ; because no branch of domestic in- 
dustry can be in a wholesome state when, by 
operation of law, its products cannot be ex- 
ported.* 

* It may not be unprofitable, at the present time, to recur 
to the consequences which followed the prohibition of the 
exportation of corn at a remarkable period of our history. 
In the year 1596, a judicious paper was drawn up by a 
magistrate of the county of Somerset, preserved by Strype, 
and adverted to by Hume, in an Appendix to the volume 
which contains the history of the reign of Elizabeth, in which 
the author says, that " forty persons had been there executed 
" in a year for robberies, thefts, and other felonies ; thirty- 
" five burnt in the hand ; thirty-seven whipped ; one hun- 
" dred and eighty-three discharged : that those who were 
" discharged were most wicked and desperate persons, who 
" never would come to good, because they would not work, 
" and none would take them into service ; that, notwith- 
" standing the great number of indictments, the fifth part of 
" the felonies committed in the county were not brought to 
" trial : the greater number escaped censure, either from the 
" superior cunning of the felons, the remissness of the ma- 
" gistrates, or the foolish lenity of the people ; that the 
" rapines committed by the infinite number of wicked, wan- 
" dering, idle people, were intolerable to the poor country- 
" men, and obliged them to keep a perpetual watch on their 



62 ENCOURAGEMENT OF IMPORTATION. PART III. 

But the laws passed in and since 1815 not 
only prevent the exportation of corn, but en- 



" sheepfolds, their pastures, their woods, aud their corn- 
" fields ; that the other counties in England were in no better 
" condition than Somersetshire, and many of them even in a 
" worse ; that there were at least three or four hundred 
" able-bodied vagabonds in every county who lived by theft 
" and rapine, and who sometimes met in troops, to the 
" number of sixty, and committed spoil on the inhabitants ; 
" that if all the felons of this kind were assembled, they 
" would be able, if reduced to good subjection, to give the 
" greatest enemy her majesty has a strong battle ; and that 
" the magistrates themselves were intimidated from exe- 
" cuting the laws upon them : and there were instances of 
"justices of the peace who, after giving sentence against 
" rogues, had interposed to stop the execution of their own 
u sentence, on account of the danger which hung over them 
" from the confederates of the felons." 

The exportation of corn had been prohibited by the 
34 Ed. 3. c. 20., and the 1 & 2 Ph. & M. c. 5., as well as by 
the 5 Eliz. c. 5. § 26. ; 13 Eliz. c. 13.; and 35 Eliz. c. 7. § 23., 
to which these consequences are ascribed by Hume. They 
may serve to account for the numerous acts passed, in the 
reigns of the Tudors, for the encouragement of tillage, ren- 
dered unprofitable by the impossibility of exporting its 
produce ; and for the numerous acts passed in these reigns 
relative to the poor, deprived of work through the operation 
of restrictive corn laws, finally made permanent by the 
43d Eliz. c. 2., generally supposed to have been rendered 
necessary by the abolition of the monasteries. 

The consequences of the non-export of corn in the time of 
Queen Elizabeth, from the operation of prohibitory laws, may 
also serve to account for the burnings of agricultural produce 
in Normandy, under the operation of restrictive corn laws 



CHAP. III. ADVANTAGE TO FOREIGN DEALER. 63 

courage the importation of it, by conferring 
upon the dealer in foreign corn an advantage, 
and exposing the home grower of corn to an in- 
equality of competition which he cannot sustain. 
The dealer in foreign corn has always the 
foreign market open to him, which is shut 
against the home grower. He can also avail 
himself always of the home market when he 
chooses, after the importable price is reached, 
under circumstances favourable to him and dis- 
advantageous to the home grower ; while the 
home grower has only his own market to resort 
to, in which he is interfered with by the dealer 
in foreign corn, when such interference is most 
inconvenient and most disastrous to him. There 
being a deficiency of growth in Great Britain, 
the dealer in foreign corn is certain that, sooner 
or later, the price must rise to the importable 
price, and he will enter his foreign corn for 
home consumption at the time when he can 
gain most by a rise in the price, and by saving 
upon the duty. Moreover, he knows the state 



even worse than our own ; and for the disturbances in our 
agricultural districts that occurred two years ago, which were 
ascribed to seditious agitators, as the burnings in Normandy 
were ascribed to the excitement produced by the Parisian 
three days of July, 1830; though these burnings happened 
three months before the events of these three days. 



64 OPERATES AS A BAD SEASON. PART III. 

of the market much better than the home grower, 
whom he can always deprive of a good price, at 
the time when it is most necessary to him, and 
when he has counted most upon it. The ad- 
vantage is thus always on the side of the foreign 
dealer, and the disadvantage on the part of the 
home grower, who cannot escape loss under this 
inequality of competition. 

Every farmer knows, that, in bad seasons, a 
high price does not compensate for the smaller 
quantity; and the inferior quality of the grain 
he can send to market. The attempt made by 
the Corn Laws to ensure to him a high price in 
plentiful seasons has deprived him of a high 
price in bad seasons. It has, moreover, made 
every season operate as a bad season to him : 
his crops are becoming every year more scanty, 
through the operation of restraining Corn Laws, 
which, in place of preventing, progressively in- 
crease the importation of foreign corn. A high 
price, in Great Britain, if it were suffered to 
arise from natural causes, and to operate abroad 
as it does at home, would always ensure to him 
a preference in the home market ; but, produced 
by artificial means, the higher it is raised by such 
means, it only enables the more distant foreign 
grower to come into competition with the nearer 
foreign grower, and all to come into competition 



CHAP. IV. CONSEQUENCES OF RESTRAINT. 65 

with the British grower in the home market,* 
whereby his growth is progressively diminished, 
while theirs is progressively increased; and all the 
benefits of an increasing price, arising from the 
increasing demand of an increasing population, 
is transferred from the British grower to the 
dealer in foreign corn. 



CHAP. IV. 

CONSEQUENCES OF THE RESTRAINT TO OWNERS OF LAND. 

Mr. Burke said, the squires of Norfolk must 
have dined when they attempted to regulate the 
price of labour. If he had lived until 1815, he 
would have said the legislators of the United 
Kingdom must have supped as well as dined, 
when they attempted to regulate the price of 
corn. 

The result has been, that, notwithstanding the 
high price of corn, the rent of land continues to 
come down.t Rent being the surplus produce 

* The number of places abroad from whence we imported 
corn in 1823, when the plentiful harvests of 1820 and 1822 
brought down the price of corn to a natural price (which 
became the lower in proportion to the previous artificial 
rise), was only nine ! (Pari. Paper, 1832, No. 406.) whereas 
the number of places abroad, from whence we imported corn 
in 1830, was twenty-four ! ! (Pari. Paper, 1832, No. 89.) 

f The following account of the average prices of each 
sort of grain, in each year, from the 5th January 1827, to the 

F 



66 



FALL OF RENT. 



PART III. 



which remains after defraying the cost of pro- 
duction, it necessarily follows, that as the price 
of corn rises the cost of production is increased, 
because the price of food enters into the cost of 
everything,* and as cultivation declines produce 
diminishes, as has been shown in the three pre- 
ceding chapters ; so that if the operation of re- 
straining Corn Laws in this respect be suffered 
to proceed much longer, there will be no surplus 
produce in Great Britain ; in other words, there 
will be no rent, and owners of land must them- 
selves become the cultivators of the soil, t 



5th of January 1832, both inclusive, was laid on the table of 
the House of Commons on the 1 6th January, 1832. 



Year ended 


Wheat. 


Barley. 


Oats. 


Rye. 


Beans. 


Peas. 






s. d. 


s. d. 


s. d. 


s. d. 


s. d. 


s. d. 




5th Jan. 1828 


56 9 


36 6 


27 4 


39 


47 7 


47 7 




— 1829 


60 5 


32 10 


22 6 


34 2 


38 4 


40 6 




— 1830 


66 3 


32 6 


22 9 


34 10 


36 8 


36 8 




— 1831 


64 3 


32 7 


24 5 


35 10 


36 1 


39 2 




— 1832 


66 4| 


38 


25 4 


40 


39 10 


41 11 





* The operation of the Poor Laws powerfully assists the 
operation of the Corn Laws in increasing the cost of pro- 
duction. See p. 95. 

•j- Tithe having existed equally before 1815 as since, does 
not fall within the scope of this enquiry. But tithe pre- 
senting a practical hinderance to the improvement of land, it 
is impossible not to say that it would be desirable to have it 
removed. It is capable of being removed in such way as to 
keep the right in the same relative position with respect to 
the exchangeable value of produce in which it is at present i 
and, when so removed, the tithe receiver will be a gainer, and 
not a loser. 

J Every thing being relative, the sum of 66s. 4:d. per 



CHAP. V. CONSEQUENCES OF RESTRAINT. 6? 

It is by the increase of produce alone that 
rents can be raised, and by preventing its di- 
minution, alone can they be maintained. Now, 
the necessary operation of the present Corn 
Laws being to diminish the gross produce, it 
requires no ghost to tell us that, in proportion as 
the gross produce diminishes, so must the sur- 
plus produce, unless the cost of production be 
diminished ; but the necessary operation of re- 
straining Corn Laws being also to increase the 
cost of production, our legislators, in passing 
such laws (to make use of a vulgar but forcible 
expression), have lit the candle at both ends. 



CHAP. V. 

CONSEQUENCES OF THE RESTRAINT UPON AGRI- 
CULTURAL LABOURERS. 

The average import, deducting exports, in the 
five years ending in 1815, was less than 1,000,000 
quarters per annum. In the five years ending 
in 1830 there were no exports to deduct, and 
the average import was nearly 4,500,000 quarters 
per annum. 

The ratio of the increase of the population 

quarter for wheat, in 1831, was as much as 132s. would have 
been in 1815, having regard to the rise which has since 
taken place in the exchangeable value of money. 

F 2 



68 CONSEQUENCES OF RESTRAINT. PART III 

in the five years ending in 1815, throughout 
which the home growth of corn improved nearly 
2,000,000 quarters, was just as great as the ratio of 
the increase of the population in the fifteen years 
ending in 1830, during which the home growth 
of corn fell off upwards of 20,000,000 quarters. 
It therefore follows, that Great Britain has ceased 
to grow at the rate of about 3,500,000 quarters 
of corn per annum, which were raised there 
previous to 1815. 

The number of labourers required to raise this 
quantity have consequently been deprived of 
employment, and thrown for subsistence upon the 
poor-rate; which, in 1815, was only 5,072,028/.*, 
but, in 1830, it was 6,829,042/.; so that there 
was an increase in the rate, at the end of these 
fifteen years, of 1,737,014/. per annum, whereas 
there ought to have been a decrease to nearly 
that amount, seeing the exchangeable value of 
money in these fifteen years had nearly doubled. 

If this operation of the existing laws be not 
removed, more agricultural labourers must con- 
tinue to be thrown out of employment, as must 
have happened in the last year (1831), in which, 

* This amount is taken from the Report of the Committee 
upon the Poor Laws in 1817. More complete returns show 
that the sum expended on the poor in 1815 was 5,418,845/. 
But the same returns also show, that there were expended 
in the relief of the poor in 1818-19 no less than 7,531,650/., 
as will be afterwards noticed in considering the operation of 
the Poor Laws as restraints upon industry. 



CHAP. VI. FLUCTUATION OF PRICES. 69 

as already shown, the import of foreign corn has 
been upwards of 1,000,000 quarters above the 
import of the preceding year. 



CHAP. VI. 

INCREASE OF FLUCTUATION OF PRICES. 

The Agricultural Committee of 1821 ob- 
serve, " When your Committee find, in the 
" seventeen months which passed between Jan- 
" uary 1816 and June 1817, the price of wheat 
" varying from 53s. Id. to 112s. Jd. ; and again, 
" in the three months which ensued, from June 
*' to September, 1817, from 112s. to 74s.} they 
" cannot but ask whether fluctuations so rapid 
" and extensive have existed in any other com- 
" modify of universal supply and demand, or in 
*' any other country? and whether these fluc- 
" tuations may not have been aggravated by 
** some of the effects of the present law." 

Such fluctuations were not found to exist in 
any other country, either under the law of 1815, 
which prevailed when these questions were sug- 
gested, or under the law of 1822, passed upon 
the report of that committee. But they have 
been extended to other countries, through the 
operation of the existing law, which received the 
royal assent on the 15th July, 1828. 

f 3 



70 FLUCTUATION OF PRICES. PART III. 

The price of wheat in England, throughout the 
month of January 1828, did not exceed 51s. 8c?. 
per quarter, when it was %3$. 4<d. at Dantzic. 
The highest price in the month in which the act 
passed was only 51s. 8d. per quarter, when it 
was 25s. 4<d. at Dantzic ; but it rose in the last 
week of the month of October in that year to 
76s. in England, when it ranged at Dantzic from 
51s. Jd. to 71s. 6d. ; while, in the preceding 
week of the same month, when wheat had 
reached J 5s. lOd. in England, it ranged from 
54s. ^d. to 7^5. 5d. at Dantzic* In the first 
week of January 1829, the price of wheat in 
England was 7^s. 10^., when it ranged from 
50s. 7d. to 70s. Jd. at Dantzic ; and, in the last 
week of September of that year, it fell to 58s. 4>d. 
in England, and to between 30,9. 9d. and 48s. 8c?. 
at Dantzic. t 

Since the passing of our law of 1828, our 
fluctuations appear to have reached other places 
besides Dantzic, which were not previously 
affected by them. Thus, in January 1828, when 
wheat was 40s. 3d. at Leghorn, it was 69s. 8d. 
at Marseilles, 53s. Id. at Alicant, and 63s. at 
Lisbon J. In January 1829, wheat was at from 
55s. 5d. to 63s. at Leghorn ; from 60s. Id. to 
67s. 6d. at Marseilles ; from 37s. 8d. to 42s. Id. 

* Consul's Return, 182& f Ibid., 1830. J Ibid., 1829. 



CHAP. VI. FLUCTUATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES. 71 

at Cadiz ; and from 56s. 2d. to 83s. 5d. at 
Lisbon.* 

Similar consequences have attended the Corn 
Law of France, which is worse than our own in 
this respect, that France has divided her king- 
dom into four parts, and no one part is allowed 
to trade with another in the article of com, until 
the price shall have reached in each a certain 
amount. Thus, in July 1829, when the price of 
wheat was from 48s. 8d. to 65 s. 8d. per English 
quarter at Caen ; it was from 52s. 6d. to 56s. 4<d. 
at Brest ; from 46s. 11^. to 53s. at Nantes ; from 
47s. 4<d. to 50s. 5d. at Charente ; and from 44s. 9d. 
to 51s. 6d. at Bordeaux. t 

There ever must be fluctuations occasioned by 
the seasons in the price of corn ; but, to the fluc- 
tuations produced by the seasons, we have added, 
as France has done, the fluctuations produced 
by restraining Corn Laws ; and it appears that our 
present law, aided no doubt by that of France, 
has increased the frequency and extent of fluc- 
tuations at other places as well as at home. 

This consequence produces a consideration of 
great importance with reference to our manu- 
factures. Our Corn Laws being found to produce 
in other countries effects similar to those pro- 
duced at home, the growth of corn is rendered 

* Consul's Return, 1830. f Ibid., 1830. 

F 4 



7# CONSEQUENCES. FART III* 

hazardous in coin growing countries from whence 
we can obtain a supply ; and thus industry there, 
as here, may be expected to desert the cultivation 
of the soil, and apply itself to manufactures, 
which are thus made there, as here, to bring a 
more sure, and always do bring a more speedy, 
return ; whereas, if we allowed the great demand 
of our manufacturing population for food, to 
bring up the price in countries from whence we 
can derive a supply, to a price commensurate to 
the price here, we should thus make the number 
of our manufacturing population, which increase 
the demand for food, the means of preserving our 
manufacturing superiority, by inducing those 
countries to continue to apply themselves to the 
raising of corn, in order to supply that demand- 



CHAP. VII. 

INJUSTICE AS WELL AS IMPOLICY OF THE CORN LAWS- 

If the object of these laws was to promote the 
home growth of corn, they have not merely 
failed, they have produced the reverse of their 
purpose. 

But could the object be attained, without bene- 
fiting the growers at the expense of the con- 
sumers of corn ? 



CHAP. VII. INJUSTICE OF THE CORN LAWS. 7^ 

And who are the consumers ? Are they not 
the growers of corn themselves, as well as the 
rest of the community ? 

And how few are the owners and occupiers of 
land, compared to the labourers ? And is not the 
high price of food the heaviest burden which 
can fall upon the labourers ? 

But it has been said that it is necessary to keep 
up high prices, in order to enable the tax-payers 
to pay high taxes. 

But can high prices be kept up ? and what is 
the consequence of a high price in corn, when the 
price of every thing else is falling ? Does not 
the high price of corn then become the heaviest 
of all taxes ? and can the tax-payers be the better 
enabled to pay taxes, by having a larger share of 
taxes to pay ? Are there any taxes paid by the 
growers of corn, which are not paid by the rest 
of the community ? and are not any means which 
keep up the price of corn, by reason of taxes, 
an attempt to relieve from taxes the growers of 
corn to the extent of the price so raised, and 
to increase the burdens of the rest of the com- 
munity in the same proportion ? 

Are not such means, in principle, the same 
with an immunity from taxes enjoyed by a 
favoured class, which was a main ingredient in 
the first revolution in France, and has reduced 
Spain and Portugal, from having been two of the 



74 INJUSTICE OF THE CORN LAWS. PART III. 

finest, to two of the most beggarly, kingdoms in 
Europe ? 

The country has not yet arrived at the state 
in which England was in the latter part of the 
reign of Queen Elizabeth, through the operation 
of laws which then, as now, prevented the ex- 
portation of corn ; but we had indications of 
similar consequences in the agricultural districts, 
which prevailed two years ago. And can we 
believe, that, if we do not remove the cause, such 
disturbances will not break forth again with re- 
doubled violence ? 

But have we not poaching attended with out- 
rage ; and do not these practices proceed from 
the want of employment, occasioned by the 
operation of the Corn Laws ? 

We have not yet the distress and poverty, in 
our country districts, that are found in Spain and 
Portugal. But if we maintain a principle which 
has destroyed industry in these countries, can 
we believe that it will not produce similar con- 
sequences here? Does any one imagine that 
even the freedom of our institutions will save us 
from this consequence ? And, if industry shall 
continue thus to be fettered in the first and 
greatest of all its branches, are we sure that even 
those free institutions will protect us from the 
horrors of a Revolution, which has distorted and 
distracted France ? 



CHAP. VIII. REMEDY. J5 



CHAP. VIII. 



HEM ED Y. 



It is evident that the operation of the Corn 
Laws ought to be restored which prevailed pre- 
vious to 1815 ; and it is material to leave no 
doubt as to what that operation was. 

Importable prices were fixed in the three 
Corn Laws which were passed previous to 1815; 
but the importable prices fixed were so very low, 
that they soon ceased to have any operation 
whatever. 

The importation duties also were so very low, 
that they also had very little effect. 

A high bounty upon exportation was, no doubt, 
granted by these acts of Parliament, but it 
ceased to have any operation after 1805, and had 
very little for some years before that year ; but 
after 1805, as before it (with the exception of 
the years of scarcity), the home growth of corn 
continued to improve, from the year 1773 to the 
year 1815. 

In Great Britain there is only one third of the 
whole population employed in agriculture. This 
is a much smaller proportion than exists in any 



76 DEMAND FOR FOOD. PART III. 

other country * ; and it is the great and increas- 
ing demand of our manufacturing population for 
food that raises the price of corn in Great Bri- 
tain, and would raise it, if we would allow it, in 
all countries from whence we can obtain a supply, 
equally high as it is here, with the difference 
only of the expense of bringing it here. 

It was this great demand for food, operating 
abroad as it did at home, which, by raising the 
price there as it did here, lessened the import- 
ation of grain from abroad, and encouraged the 
grower of corn at home previous to 1815. If 
our landed proprietors and our finance minister 
could be so persuaded, the most advantageous 
measure that could be adopted for the home 
grower of corn and the country at large, would 
be to have no Corn Law at all. But a contrary 
impression is so deeply rooted among landed 
proprietors, that they will not consent to give 
up what they conceive to afford them what they 
call protection ; - and the state of the public 

* In the countries from whence Great Britain derives her 
chief supply of foreign grain, nearly the whole population 
are employed in agriculture ; so that for one man, perhaps, 
required to raise a quarter of grain in Great Britain, ten men 
are made use of in these countries ; a circumstance never 
taken into account in estimating the comparative cost of 
production as between this country and another, which is 
withal an enquiry of all others the most uncertain and the 
most useless. 



CHAP. VIII. NO IMPORTABLE PRICE. 77 

revenue is such that the Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer will not venture to relinquish the in- 
come derived to the state from a duty on 
foreign corn. 

The object, then, must be so to levy a duty as 
not to prevent the great demand of our increasing 
population for food from operating abroad as it 
does at home, and so also as to put the growth 
of corn in Great Britain, as nearly as may be, in 
the situation in which it would be if no tax 
were imposed upon imported corn. 

For this purpose, there must be a fixed duty 
but no importable price, because an importable 
price not only prevents our great demand from 
operating freely and equally at all times, abroad 
and at home, but increases the frequency and 
amount of fluctuations. 

A duty upon the importation of foreign corn 
will, however, operate mischievously, and afford 
no relief to the home grower, unless a drawback, 
commensurate to the duty be allowed upon the 
exportation of home grown corn, as well as 
foreign corn, upon which the duty may have 
been paid ; because the price abroad will, other- 
wise, be always so much less than the price at 
home, not only by all the difference of bringing 
foreign corn to this country, but to all the 
amount of the duty also; and the British grower 



78 FIXED DUTY AND DRAWBACK. PART III. 

will thus be unable to export his surplus 
produce.* 

As our home growth is not equal to our con- 
sumption t, it may be supposed that we have no 

*It is remarked, by the author of the "Wealth of Nations," 
that " a rise in the money price of commodities, when pecu- 
" liar to a country, tends to discourage more or less every 
" department of industry carried on within it, enabling other 
" nations to undersell it, not only in the foreign, but the 
" home market." If this remark holds good in the case of all 
commodities, it is not less true in the case of any one com- 
modity. By the operation of our Corn Laws, we raise the 
money-price of corn in Great Britain above the money-price 
in other countries, by preventing our great demand from 
producing the same effect abroad that it does at home. 
We thus make a rise in the money-price of corn peculiar to 
Great Britain, and thereby discourage this branch of industry; 
whereas if we did not prevent our great demand from raising 
the money-price in other countries reached by that demand, 
the consequence would be that the price of corn would not 
be much lowered here, but would be greatly raised in such 
countries ; and, by suffering our great demand so to operate, 
we should cease to render a rise in the money-price of corn 
peculiar to Great Britain, which tends to discourage our own 
agriculture. But in proportion as we raise the price of corn 
in Great Britain, by a tax upon the importation of foreign 
corn, we shall render a rise in the money-price of corn still 
peculiar to Great Britain, unless we allow a drawback com- 
mensurate to the duty upon the export of home grown corn. 

j It was stated by the Agricultural Committee of 1821, 
that our consumption in horse corn alone then amounted 
to 30,000,000 quarters yearly ; and there having been 
then a tax upon horses used in husbandry as well as for 
pleasure, they had the means of estimating it. In meat and 
drink, each individual of the population is computed to con- 



CHAP. VIII. EXPORT OF SURPLUS PRODUCE. 79 

occasion to export. But, from 1773 until 1815^ 
when our home growth kept pace with the in- 
crease of the population, we always had a de- 
ficiency, and yet we exported. The reason is, 
that though there is a deficiency in the total 
growth, there is always a surplus of some par- 
ticular grain ; and, moreover, we require, and 
therefore import, grain of one quality and export 
it of another. The necessity of export will 
further be manifest, when we advert that, if Great 
Britain and Ireland can grow grain enough, or 
nearly enough, for the consumption of the popu- 
lation of Great Britain in middling years, they 
must grow a great deal too much in very abundant 
seasons. The diminution of the importations con- 
sequent upon the abundance of the seasons of 1820 
and 1822 may satisfy every reflecting person that 
we have only to grow enough of grain to prevent 
the importation of it ; but, to be enabled to grow 
enough, we must be enabled to export our sur- 
plus produce. We should export it if there were 



sume at the rate of two quarters of corn of all sorts in 
the year. This would give us a consumption of about 
60,000,000 of quarters of corn per annum. There being 
27,000,000 of acres used in cultivation in England, besides 
about 6,000,000 of acres uncultivated, this extent of surface, 
if duly cultivated, with the arable land of Scotland, should 
be sufficient to produce even this large quantity, of which 
Great Britain imported, in 1815, less than a sixtieth part, 
but now imports nearly a twelfth part. 



80 EXPORT OF SURPLUS PRODUCE. PART III. 

no law upon the subject, and we must not be pre- 
vented from exporting it by the operation of any 
law we make. As already stated, we imported, in 
1823, only 53,641 quarters of foreign grain. Every 
one remembers the ruinously low prices of corn 
in that and the two preceding years. But if we 
had then been enabled to export grain, prices 
would not have fallen so low. Wheat was as 
high as 98s. 8d. in 1818, when we imported 
3,522,729 quarters of foreign grain # , and it fell 
only to 77*» %d. in 1819? when our foreign im- 
portation was 1,707,522 quarters. Prices in 1821, 
1822, and 1823 thus fell proportionally lower, 
and were felt more severely in proportion to the 
high price in these two years. 

In order to enable the home grower to export 
his surplus produce, and in order to prevent such 
fluctuations, it is absolutely necessary that there 
should be a drawback commensurate to the 
import-duty. I say commensurate, because, as 
the effect of a duty upon importation is to bring 
in the best grain, so the effect of a drawback is 
to send out the worst. The drawback, therefore, 
should be as much less than the duty as may be 
sufficient to compensate the difference of the 
quality of the grain. 

The rise or fall in the exchangeable value of 
money being uncertain, and its amount incapable 

* Appendix to Agricultural Report of 1821, p. 392. 



CHAP. VIII. PLAN SUGGESTED. 81 

of estimation, I should wish to see an ad valorem 
duty imposed upon importation. In settling 
the amount, regard should be had to the average 
difference of price at Dantzic and in Great 
Britain, in the forty years preceding 1815, when 
our demand for corn was allowed to operate 
freely abroad as it did at horn This I find to 
have been 12,9. per quarter, on wheat, ac- 
cording to the exchangeable value of money 
throughout these forty years ; during thirty-five 
of which, money continued to fall in exchange- 
able value. If, therefore, the value of a quarter 
of grain be taken out of every quarter imported, 
this, with the expense of bringing foreign corn 
to this country, will be as much as a due regard 
to the interests of the grower of corn and of the 
Exchequer on the one hand, and the interests of 
the consumers on the other, will warrant. 

Such a measure may be easily accomplished, 
by providing that corn shall always be importable 
on payment of an eighth part of its value, ac- 
cording to the highest price of the kind of grain 
imported in the London market in the week 
immediately preceding the importation ; and by 
providing that grain shall be always exportable, 
and shall entitle the exporter to a twelfth part of 
the value, according to the highest price of such 
kind of grain in the London market in the week 
immediately preceding the exportation. 

G 



S2 AD VALOREM DUTY. PART lil. 

Such a duty and drawback will apply equally 
to all sorts of grain, and will continue to operate 
equally at all times, whether money rises or falls 
in exchangeable value, or whether grain rises or 
falls in price, and will enable us to get rid of the 
machinery of averages, and all machinery what- 
ever. The highest price in the London market 
can always be easily ascertained ; and, as the price 
is always highest there, so it is fit the duty and 
drawback should be according to that price ; 
because, as already said, the effect of a duty on 
importation is to bring in the best grain. 

But if a fixed money-duty shall be deemed 
more advisable, then regard must be had to the 
different sorts of grain in fixing the duty, and a 
drawback must be apportioned to each. In the 
case of wheat, I should say that a duty of 8s. per 
quarter will be quite sufficient, with a drawback of 
6s. per quarter ; and the duties and drawbacks 
on other grain should be fixed according to a 
similar proportion. 

The Chancellor of the Exchequer need be 
under no apprehension of having a large draw- 
back to pay. During forty years of a virtually 
free trade in corn, when the bounty was fre- 
quently ten times the amount of the duty, the 
exportation was equal only to about one-sixth 
part of the quantity imported ; and, after 1 805, 
the drawback dwindled to nothing. 



CHAP. VIII. OBJECTIONS OBVIATED. S3 

It perhaps may be objected to an ad valorem, 
or a fixed duty, upon the importation of foreign 
corn, that it adds to the price in seasons of 
scarcity, when it would be desirable to lower it. 
But seeing the restrained system which has pre- 
vailed since 1815 has been to diminish the home 
growth of corn to nearly 4,500,000 quarters 
per annum, upon the average, of the five years 
ending in 1830, and this diminution has been 
progressive, and increased last year ; and seeing, 
also, that, to our great and increasing demand for 
corn, is to be added the great and increasing de- 
mand for corn in France, proceeding from a Corn 
Law worse than our own, it is obvious that the 
growing increase of demand abroad, arising from 
the decreasing supply at home, here and in France, 
must have the effect of raising the price in other 
grain growing countries in years of scarcity, in 
proportion as the deficiency is increased by the 
severity of the season, to an extent much beyond 
the operation of a steady and not excessive ad 
valorem or fixed duty, which, operating equally 
at all times, the consumer, in years of scarcity, 
will share with the grower of corn the con- 
sequences of a bad harvest. He would share 
them if there were no Corn Law at all ; and no 
Corn Law should alter, or attempt to alter, the 
natural course of things. 

g 2 



84* 



PART IV. 

POOR LAWS' RESTRAINTS. 



CHAP. I. 

MONEY EXPENDED FOR THE RELIEF OF THE POOR. 

In the year 1815, returns relative to the ex- 
pense and maintenance of the poor in England 
were ordered to be made to the House of Com- 
mons.* Such returns have continued to be made 
every year since. The House was in possession 
of some previous returns, which, with these re- 
turns, were referred to a select committee in the 
year 1821 ; and a committee upon these returns 
was appointed in each of the four following 
years ; but no such committee has been ap- 
pointed since 1826, possibly because these com- 
mittees found themselves unable to make any 
useful suggestions with respect to them. 

The amounts, as given in the appendix to the 

* 55 G. 3. c. 47. 



CHAP. I. MONEY FOR RELIEF OF THE POOR. 85 

report of 1826, are annexed, with the amounts 
returned in subsequent years. 

Sums expended in the Relief of the Poor. 

£ 

Average of 1748-49-50 - - 689,971 

1776 - - - 1,521,732 

1783-4-5 - - 1,912,241 

1803 - - - 4,077,891 

1812-13 - - 6,656,105 

1813-14 - - - 6,294,584 

1814-15 - - 5,418,845 

1815-16 - - - 5,724,506 

1816-17 - - 6,918,217 

1817-18 - - -. 7,890,148 

1818-19 - - 7,531,650 

1819-20 - - - 7,329,594 

1820-21 - - 6,958,445 

1821-22 - - - 6,358,703 

1822-23 - - 5,772,958 

1823-24 - - - 5,736,898 

1824-25 - - 5,786,991 

1825-26 - - - 5,928,501 

1826-27 - - 6,441,088 

1827-28 - - - 6,298,000 

1828-29 - - 6,829,042 

1829-30 - - - 6,798,888 

The committees appointed upon these returns, 
in 1826 and preceding years, remarked the in- 
crease and decrease of different years of which 
they gave averages, and the great amount in 
1803, compared to the amounts in 1750, 1776, 
and 1785 ; but they did not offer any explana- 
tion how such differences had arisen, or how the 
great amount in 1803 was to be accounted for. 

g 3 



86 CAUSES OF INCREASE AND PART IV. 



CHAP. II. 

CAUSES OF INCREASE AND VARIATIONS IN THE 
AMOUNT OF THE POOR'S RATE. 

The Rev. Henry Duncan, a clergyman of the 
Church of Scotland, who was examined before 
the Committee on the Poor Laws of the House 
of Commons, in 1819, gives this reason for 
the increase of parochial assessments in Scot- 
land, which applies with equal force to England. 
Speaking with reference to Scotland, he says, — 
1 Years of scarcity and embarrassment have had 
t a very distressing tendency in that respect : " 
and he states how they operate : — " In years of 
' scarcity the landed proprietors meet for the 
' purpose of affording relief to the poor ; when, 
' on other occasions, they have not been ac- 
' customed to meet. They afford such relief, 
■ in general, by a voluntary assessment; and 
1 this voluntary assessment teaches the poor to 
' look up to a mode of supplying their wants 
8 which they had not been accustomed to." He 
gives this instance: — " A poor labourer in a 
' neighbouring parish applied to me about two 
' years ago (previous to 1819), requesting that 
* I would inform him of the best method of 



CHAP. II. VARIATIONS IN THE POOR'S RATE. 87 

6 compelling the heritors to assess themselves 
' for the relief of the indigent. He told me 
S that the poor in his parish had been receiving 
' relief from a voluntary assessment ; but he un- 
' derstood that this was to last only for one 

• year ; and there was a deputation of the poor 
' of that parish, who were to come to my house 
' in a day or two, for the purpose of enquiring 
4 into the law on the subject, that they might 
' compel the heritors to continue their assess- 
' ment." Mr. Duncan's answer was, — " I con- 
c ceived poor-rates had a very injurious tendency, 
' and I certainly would not assist him in any 
' method that might serve to introduce them." 

He adds, — " What I said to him had the effect 
' of preventing the deputation from waiting 

* upon me, for I heard no more of it." The 
observation which Mr. Duncan makes upon the 
occurrence is, — "I am persuaded that this 
" would not have happened at any time before 
" the years of distress : and it was to me a very 
" melancholy proof of the demoralising influence 
" even of voluntary assessments." 

If such was the effect of voluntary assessments 
in Scotland, which are temporary, need we be 
surprised at the result of compulsory assessments 
in England, which are permanent. 

But, availing ourselves of the clue given to 

g 4 



88 CAUSES OF INCREASE AND PART IV. 

us by this intelligent observer, let us see how it 
applies to the case in hand. 

The bounty on corn was granted in 1689 % in 
consequence of the abundance of produce, as 
" a reward to persons exporting corn." The 
price of middling wheat at this period, accord- 
ing to an average of five years, was 28s. 9d. per 
quarter. The seasons in 1690 and 1691 were 
so favourable, as to reduce the price to 26s. 
A bad season ensued in 1692 ; and bad seasons 
followed until 1702 ; when a plentiful harvest 
brought down the price, which had risen, in the 
intermediate period, to 56s. per quarter, below 
its amount in 1691. It was even so low as 
25s. lid., upon an average of six years ending 
in I7O7. With the exception of three unfavour- 
able seasons which followed, and brought up the 
price to 62s. in 1709, which fell only to 6 1.9. ^d. 
in 1710, the seasons continued favourable until 
1749 ; when, upon an average of five years, the 
price of middling wheat in England was only 
2Tjs. 9d. per quarter. 

This brings us to the year 1750, when, upon 
an average of three years, the sum expended in 
the relief of the poor in England amounted 
only to 689,971^ per annum. 

We now come to a period of a different de- 

* 1 W.&M. c. 11. 



CHAP. II. VARIATIONS IN THE POOR'S RATE. 89 

scription. The author of the Corn Tracts, who 
is frequently quoted by Dr. Adam Smith, says 
the seasons from 1752 to 1755 were of doubtful 
produce ; and the harvest of 1756 was greatly 
deficient in this country and throughout Europe, 
insomuch that the sufferings of the poor in that 
year were adverted to in a speech from the 
throne ; and there was a succession of bad sea- 
sons for ten years after 1765.* 

Circumstances arose in the execution of the 
Poor Laws, which mainly increased the operation 

* In the account given of the seasons, I have followed 
Mr. George Chalmers, Dr. Adam Smith, and Mr. Tooke. 

The reason why Adam Smith entertained so strong an 
opinion against the Corn Laws which prevailed in his time 
thus appears : — though 48s. per quarter, the importable price 
fixed for wheat in 1772, became a low price from the fall 
which continued to take place in the value of money, yet it 
must have appeared to him a high price, having regard to the 
prices which prevailed for so long a period previous to the 
year 1750, when wheat was only 28s. per quarter. Dr. Smith 
also conceived that money had begun to rise in value in his 
time ; but the produce from the mines, which he states to have 
been about 6,000,000/. sterling when he wrote in 1775, soon 
amounted to nearly twice that sum ; which induced the con- 
tinuance and increase of the fall in the value of money. Under 
a contrary impression, however, and believing 48s. the quarter 
to be by much too high a price, it appeared to him that the 
Corn Laws of his time would operate as a restraint upon in- 
dustry ; and if the value of money had not so fallen as to 
make 48s. the quarter cease to operate as an importable price, 
these laws would have operated such restraint, as the laws 
passed since 1815 have done. 



90 CAUSES OF INCREASE AND PART IV. 

of the seasons in increasing the rates. The 
manner in which such circumstances, as described 
by the Rev. Mr. Duncan (to whose evidence 
I have already referred), appear to have arisen 
in Scotland, serves to show (though he was not 
aware of it) how these circumstances operated 
in England. He says, — " The particular cir- 
cumstance which led to the establishment of 
the poor-rates in two parishes within the pres- 
bytery to which I belong, viz. the parishes of 
Middlebie and Kirkpatrick Fleming, was the 
interference of the sheriff when the Kirk session 
refused relief. In the parish of Middlebie, a 
farmer, who was much given to litigation, 
took an interest in a poor man who lived on 
his farm, and he endeavoured to obtain for 
him a certain weekly allowance from the ses- 
sion. The session offered to give to this man 
such relief as they gave to others ; this, how- 
ever, did not satisfy the farmer, and he ap- 
pealed to the sheriff, who listened to his 
complaint, and ordered an allowance very con- 
siderably above what the session had been 
accustomed to grant to persons in similar cir- 
cumstances." The sheriff of the county of 
Dumfries, in Scotland, here assumed a power of 
abuse similar to that which was granted by the 
43 Eliz. to a single magistrate in England. 

This abuse in England, with the severity of 



CHAP. II. VARIATIONS IN THE POOR'S RATE. 91 

the seasons which prevailed for ten years pre- 
vious to 1776, may account for the great in- 
crease in the poor-rates which took place in that 
year, which was 831,761/. above the amount in 
17«50 ; being an increase, in fifteen years, greater 
than the whole amount that had arisen in the 
century and a half which had intervened be- 
tween the 43 Eliz. and the year 1750. 

The seasons from 177 6 to 1785 were good, 
and prices moderate*, which may serve to ac- 
count for the little increase in the nine years 
ending in that year, being only 391,509/. above 
the amount in 1776. 

The seasons, from 1794-5 to 1801-2t were 
the worst ever known in living memory ; and an 
occurrence arose at this period, which extended 
the abuses of the Poor Laws. The magistrates 
of Berkshire met at Speenhamland, and, in their 
wisdom, drew up a table, apportioning the relief 
to be granted to a poor man according to the 
price of the peck loaf of wheat, and the number 
of his children. This notable table, which is 
adverted to by Sir Frederick Eden, was circulated 
all over England ; and, unfortunately, was acted 

* According to the Eton Tables, wheat, at Michaelmas 
1776, was 6s. per bushel ; at Michaelmas 1 779, it was only 5s. ; 
and at Michaelmas 1785, it was no more than 6s. 6d. 

T According to the same tables, wheat, at Michaelmas 
17.95, was lis. 6d. per bushel; at Michaelmas 1800, 16s. ; and 
at Lady Day 1801, as high as 2 c 2s. l^d. per bushel. 



92 CAUSES OF INCREASE AND PART IV. 

upon, more or less, in all the southern counties. 
The Rev. Mr. Becher, who was examined be- 
fore the Lords' Committee on the Poor Laws, in 
1831, recollects this table reaching the county 
of Nottingham in 1795, and mentions the con- 
sequences which followed from it. 

The increase of abuses in the administration 
of the Poor Laws thence arising will account for 
the great amount of the rate in 1803, showing an 
increase of no less than 2,165,750/. in eighteen 
years. 

It is unfortunate that no returns have been 
made for any year between 1785 and 1795. 
The seasons, down to 1794, were good ; the 
prices of corn moderate* ; and it is therefore 
probable that the great proportion of increase 
was after 1795. 

It is not less unfortunate that no returns have 
been made for any year between 1803 and 1813. 
The six years ending in 1812 were all bad sea- 
sons, and prices were high.t This may account 

* According to the Eton Tables, the price of wheat, at 
Lady Day 1786, was only 5s. 10^d. per bushel; and the 
highest price, before 1795, was at Lady Day 1790, when it 
was 8s. 3d. per bushel. 

t According to the Eton Tables, the price of wheat, at 
Michaelmas 1803, was only 7s. 6d. per bushel; but, at Mi- 
chaelmas 1808, it was 12s. ; at Michaelmas 1809, 14s.; at 
Michaelmas 1810, 13s. ; at Michaelmas 1811, 14s., and at 
Michaelmas 1812, 15s.; and at Lady Day in that year, it 
was as high as 17s. per bushel. 



CHAP. II. VARIATIONS IN THE POOR'S RATE. 93 

for the increase of the rate between 1803 and 
1813, being no less than 2,578,214/. in ten 
years. 

There was a decrease, however, next year, of 
361,521/. ; and in the following year, of 875,739- ; 
forming a diminution of 1,237,260/. in two years. 
The harvest of 1813 was one of undoubted abun- 
dance* ; but the crop of 1814 was otherwise.? 
To the diminution of the rates hi 1813 and 1814, 
occasioned by the abundance of the season of 
1813, must be added the rise in the exchange- 
able value of money, which began in 1811, and 
increased the cheapness produced by abundance. 

Though the season of 1815 was good, yet the 
effect of the Corn Law passed in that year be- 
gan to operate ; and the rate increased next year 
368,661/. over the amount in the preceding year. 

This increase continued until 1818-19, in 
which year the rate had increased no less than 
2,112,805/. above the amount in 1815-16; no 
doubt occasioned in part by the bad harvest of 
1816 : but the harvest of 1817 afforded an 
average crop, and that of 1818 was abundant^ 

* According to the Eton Tables, the price of wheat, at 
Lady Day 1814, was 10s. 9d per bushel. 

+ The price of wheat, on the 22 d of March 1815, was 
70s. &d. per quarter. — Appendix to Agricultural Report of 
1821, p. 381. 

J Prices of corn afford a pretty safe guide in estimating 
the seasons. The price of wheat in December, 1816, rose to 






94 VARIATIONS IN THE POOR'S RATE. PART IV. 

The great increase of the poor-rates from 1815-16 
to 1818-19 must, therefore, be ascribed to the 
operation of the Corn Law passed in 1815 ; 
which, by lessening the home growth, tended to 
make every year operate as a bad season to home 
ndustry, and this is evident from the state of the 
foreign importations.* 

There was a decrease in the amount of the 
rate in 1819-20, occasioned, no doubt, by the 
anticipation of the good harvest of that year ; and 
the decrease continued thereafter progressively 
until 1823-4, the amount in which year was less 
than the amount in 1818-19 by 1,794,752/. 

This reduction was, no doubt, owing to the 
abundant harvests of 1820 and 1822, assisted by 
the continuing rise in the exchangeable value of 
money. 

But though, with the exception of one year 
(1827), the seasons have been since favourable, 
the increase of the rise in the exchangeable 
value of money has been unable to keep down 



103s. lid. per quarter ; in January 1817, it rose to 112,?.7^.per 
quarter ; in January 1818, it was still as high as 87s. per quar- 
ter ; but it fell, in January 1819, to 77*. 6d. per quarter. — 
Appendix to Agricultural Report of 1821, p. 381. 

* In 1816 we imported from abroad only 315,773 quarters 
of all sorts of grain; but in 1817 we imported 1,797,181 ; 
and in 1818, no less than 3,322,729 quarters. — Appendix to 
Agricultural Report of 1821, p. 392. 



CHAP. III. OF THE POOR-LAWS. 95 

the increasing effects of diminished produce at 
home, and, with the decrease of home growth, 
and consequently of the employment of home in- 
dustry, the poor's rate increased with the foreign 
importation, in the five following years, in so 
much that the amount of the rate in 1828-29 
was 1,092,144/. above the amount in 1823-24 ; 
being an increase to this amount in five years. 

There was a small improvement in 1829-30, 
the amount being 30,154/. below the amount in 
the preceding year, a diminution too insignificant 
to draw any conclusion from ; though, probably, 
owing to the good season of 1829, in which, 
though the crops were comparatively abundant, 
they were still unable to prevent a large foreign 
importation in the following year. 



CHAP. III. 

EFFECTS OF THE MALADMINISTRATION OF THE POOR 
LAWS UPON MORALS AND INDUSTRY. 

A distinction having been created between 
married and unmarried labourers, so that, gene- 
rally speaking, the latter do not receive above 
half the sum paid to the former, it follows that 
an unmarried labourer can save nothing to pro- 



96 EFFECTS OF MAL-ADMINISTRATION PART IV. 

vide the means of keeping a family, which he is 
nevertheless induced to have in order that he 
may increase his parish pay. The effect of this 
abuse is to produce habits of improvidence among 
the lower orders. 

The moral effects upon young women are 
still more to be deplored. Among the lower 
orders, chastity in unmarried women has almost 
ceased to be a virtue. No harm is conceived 
to be done, until the fruit of this promiscuous 
intercourse promises to be a child ; and then 
the expectant mother swears the child to any 
man she likes best, or finds most convenient ; 
who, by another abuse in the administration 
of these laws, is obliged to marry her or go 
to prison. A young woman has thus only to 
get a child in order to get a husband : the 
consequence of which, besides degrading the 
woman, is to multiply children without any pro- 
vision having been made for the means of main- 
taining them, and to destroy the natural love of 
parents for their offspring, by setting them free 
from the natural obligation to maintain their 
children, and by removing that solicitude about 
them which endears them to their affections. 

Where mankind are immoral, they are rarely in- 
dustrious. Carelessness, idleness, and indolence, 
are the natural consequence of this state of things ; 
which further obliging the labourer to look to 
assistance from the parish to supply his wants, in 



CHAP. III. OF THE POOR-LAWS. 97 

place of being obliged to rely upon his own in- 
dustry for his means of support, he becomes dis- 
contented with his condition, which being unable 
to improve by any exertion of his own, he fur- 
ther becomes helpless and hopeless, but reckless 
withal, and ready for any sort of mischief that 
may be presented to him.* 

The consequence of all these things to industry 
is, that the work done by a labourer lessens progres- 
sively. The Rev. Mr. Becher, already referred 
to, (who has introduced a correction of the abuses 
of the poor-laws into his part of Nottingham- 
shire, which will be afterwards noticed,) says, 
that the work of a labourer in his district 
is four times the quantity of the work per- 
formed by a labourer in the other districts of 

* This consequence may serve to explain the aptitude 
found among our agricultural labourers to become incen- 
diaries two years ago. The burnings of ricks and barns, 
however, may have originated from the same cause which 
produced burnings in Normandy, long before they happened 
in England, namely, the operation of the Corn Laws in de- 
priving labourers of employment ; for France, having divided 
her kingdom into four parts, and not allowing anyone of these 
divisions to trade with another in the article of grain, until, 
in each, it rises to a certain price, she has a worse Corn Law 
than even we have ; and labourers there, as here, burnt 
corn, in order that, in raising a further supply, they might 
receive better wages. The Game Laws, also, have had 
ascribed to them an increase of crime, a large portion of 
which springs from the operation of the Corn Laws in throw- 
ing labourers out of employment. 

H 



98 EFFECTS OF MAL-ADMINISTRATION PART IV. 

that county where these abuses still prevail ; so 
that a farmer, while he supposes he and the 
parish are paying such labourer only at the rate 
of 2s. per day, he and the parish are actually 
paying such labourer at the rate of 8s. per day. 

It thus becomes manifest how the mal-admin- 
istration of the Poor Laws powerfully assist the 
operation of the Corn Laws in diminishing home 
produce by increasing the cost of production. 



CHAP. IV. 

EFFECT OF THE MAL-ADMINISTRATION OF THE POOR 
LAWS UPON POPULATION. 

The Rev. Mr. Whateley, vicar of the parish of 
Cookham, in Berkshire, who has introduced into 
that parish a system corrective of the abuses of 
the Poor Laws (to be afterwards adverted to), 
stated, in his examination before the Lords' Com- 
mittee on the Poor Laws in 1831, that he had 
examined the register of births in his parish for 
eighteen years before his system began, and for 
nine years afterwards, and he found the number 
of births in each period of nine years to have 
been as follows : — 593, 706, 676 ; so that the 
number of births, which increased 113 upon 593, 



CHAP. IV. OF THE POOR-LAWS. 99 

the number in the first nine years, diminished, in 
the nine years after his system commenced, 30 
upon 706, the number in the nine years imme- 
diately before it came into operation. 

Nothing can show in a more striking manner 
the effect of the abuses of the Poor Laws, in 
inducing an over-population, than the mere 
stateinent of this fact, which, with the operation 
of the Corn Laws in diminishing the home growth 
of corn, may serve to point out the errors com- 
mitted by our political economists in their at- 
tempts to establish a ratio for the increase of the 
population. In every country there are restraints 
upon industry, which limit or diminish the growth 
of food, and increase the numbers of the popu- 
lation, which they do not take into the account ; 
and most assuredly, in their reasonings upon the 
ratio of the increase of the population of Great 
Britain, they have altogether overlooked these 
two very prominent facts. The accounts of the 
imports and exports of grain enable us to mea- 
sure the diminution of the home growth of corn ; 
but we are not yet in possession of sufficient 
details to enable us to appreciate the proportion 
of over-population, produced by the abuses of 
the Poor Laws ; though the above fact leaves us 
no room to doubt that their operation is ex- 
tensive in this respect. 

h 2 



100 PRACTICE ILLEGAL. PART IV. 



CHAP. V. 



PRACTICE ILLEGAL. 



The abuses which have been noticed, and 
other abuses committed in relation to the poor, 
do not derive any support from the 43 Eliz. c. 2., 
which was among the last acts of her reign, and 
is the governing law upon the subject to this 
dav. 

Its main provisions are, that order shall be 
taken, — 

1. " For setting to work the children of all 
" such whose parents shall not be thought able 
" to keep and maintain their children. 

2. " For setting to work all such persons, 
" married or unmarried, having no means to 
" maintain them, and use no ordinary or daily 
" trade of life to get their living by." 

For these purposes, direction was given to raise, 
by taxation, &c. 

1. "A convenient stock of flax, hemp, wool, 
" thread, iron, and other necessary ware and 
" stuff, to set the poor to work. 

2. " Competent sums of money for and to- 
" wards the necessary relief of the lame, im- 
" potent, old, blind, and such other among them 
" being poor and not able to work ; as also for 



CHAP. V. PRACTICE ILLEGAL. 101 

" putting out of such children to be ap- 
" prentices." 

Two distinct objects were aimed at by this 
act of parliament : — 1 . To set to work those 
who were able to work, and ought to work, to 
gain their living. 2. To relieve persons of the 
description mentioned, requiring relief, who were 
unable to work. These last alone were to re- 
ceive relief; and, in prevention even of this last, 
it is provided " that the father and grandfather* 
' and the children of every poor, old, blind, 
' lame, and impotent person, or other poor per- 
' son not able to work, being of a sufficient 
■ ability, shall, at their own charges, relieve and 
' maintain every such poor person in that man- 
* ner, and according to that rate, as by the jus- 
' tices of the peace of the county, &c. shall be 
' assessed." 

The legislature here made a great mistake in 
attempting to enforce a moral obligation which 
rests upon a higher sanction ; but it serves to 
show that, even where it directed necessary relief 
to be given, it meant it should be without pre- 
judice to to an obligation which should render it 
unnecessary. * 

* This moral obligation has never been found to fail in 
parishes in Scotland, where no compulsory provision is in- 
troduced. Mr. Duncan says, " The poor (in his parish) are 
" principally supported by their own relations. There is 

H 3 



102 PRACTICE ILLEGAL. PART IV. 

Relief, when it was to be given, however, was 
to be confined to persons unable to work ; but 
the two objects of this act have been confounded, 
and both industry and charity suffer from the 
confusion. 

Among those who were to be set to work, 
however, agricultural labourers do not appear to 
have been contemplated ; at least, if they were 
to be set to work, it was by being employed in 



" that feeling, in Scotland, of independence, that laudable 
" desire among the poor to provide for themselves, and that 
" dislike of any thing approaching upon charity, that the 
" labouring classes, in those quarters where poor-rates have 
" not been introduced, universally consider it to be their 
" duty to make every sacrifice to support their poor re- 
" lations." 

Wherever this moral obligation has been interfered with in 
Scotland it has been found to be prejudicial. A committee 
of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in a 
report made to the Select Committee of the House of Com- 
mons upon the Poor Laws, in 1817, say, "it is clear to the 
" committee that, in almost all the country parishes which 

have hitherto come under their notice, where a regular 
" assessment has been established, the wants of the poor 
" and the extent of the assessment have gradually and pro- 
" gressively increased from their commencement ; and it 
" does appear to be a matter of very serious interest to the 
" community at large to prevent, as far as possible, this prac- 
" tice from being generally adopted ; to limit the assessments 
" as much as they can be limited, where the circumstances of 
" particular parishes render them unavoidable ; and, where- 
" ever it is practicable, to abandon them." 



a 



CHAP. V. PRACTICE ILLEGAL. 103 

working up the raw materials mentioned in the 
act, which thus limits the employment to be 
given to persons who could be set to work upon 
the necessary ware and stuff which was to be 
provided for them to work upon. 

But the abuses of the Poor Laws, where they 
have once been let in, have increased most in 
agricultural counties. It is remarked by the 
Committees appointed upon the Poor Returns, in 
1826, that "the county of Sussex is still the dis- 
" trict in England in which the expenditure 
" bears the highest proportion to the number of 
" the people, and Lancashire is still on the oppo. 
" site side of the scale." 

It is further certain, that it never was intended 
by this act of Parliament that the labour of an 
able-bodied labourer should be paid out of the 
rate. Notwithstanding the prevalence of the 
practice, therefore, it is a practice unwarranted 
by law, arising from and resting upon a mistaken 
impression of self-interest in the employer, who 
seeks to throw upon others the payment of wages 
which ought to be borne by himself. It is plain, 
that if an able-bodied workman is not allowed 
parish pay, he will not hire himself to work, 
unless at the rate of wages determined by the 
demand for able-bodied workmen. He ought 
never to have more, and no employer of labour 
ought to pay less. 

h 4 



104 PRACTICE ILLEGAL. PART IV. 

The Committee on the Poor Laws, appointed 
by the House of Lords, in 1831, appear to have 
doubted the legality of paying labour out of the 
rate, or of paying money to parents for the main- 
tenance of their children ; for they suggested that 
the following questions should be put to the 
judges : — 

1. " Does the 43 Eliz. c. 2., or any other law, 
' authorise magistrates to order any relief to be 
' given to poor persons who are able to work, or to 
' afford them any assistance, except by procuring 
\ some employment for them where employment 
' can be obtained ? 

2. " If it be satisfactorily proved that employ- 
1 ment cannot be procured within a reasonable 
' distance of the parish to which able-bodied poor 

* belong, will the magistrates, in such case, be 
' authorised to order relief? 

3. " Where able-bodied poor persons can 

* maintain only part of their family by the wages 

* of their labour, are magistrates authorised to 

* order any relief to be given to them for the 

* maintenance of such of their children, not 
' being able to work, as they cannot maintain ?" 



CHAP. VI. REMEDY. 105 



CHAP. VI. 



REMEDY. 



It happens, singularly enough, that, as Berkshire 
set the example of extending the abuses of the 
Poor Laws in England, so the same county has 
set the example of correcting them. 

The Rev. Thomas Whately, Vicar of Cookham, 
in his examination before the Lords' Committee 
on the Poor Laws, in 1831, states the practical 
effects in money of a system for the management 
of the poor, introduced by him into that parish, 
to have been, to reduce its poor rates (which 
were 3907/. 10,9. in 1812-13) to 1155/. Is. their 
amount in 1829-30. 

If this system be practicable in every other 
parish, the amount of the poor-rates in England, 
which now approach 7> 000, 000/. sterling per 
annum, may be reduced to less than 2,000,000/. 
sterling per annum. 

This fact alone may be sufficient to show the 
mischievous operation of restraints upon industry, 
even if it were limited to the money-saving effect. 
But in the case of the poor (as in every other 
case of restraint), the removal of the restraint will 
be to increase the returns of general industry 



106 mr. whately's system. PART IV. 

tenfold, by restoring industry to the exertion of 
its own resources. 

Mr. Whately thus describes his system : — 
The employment of the able-bodied poor who 
apply for relief at low wages and hard work, 
showing them that the parish is the hardest 
taskmaster and the lowest paymaster they can 
apply to ; never giving any thing in aid of 
labour, rent, or rates ; dividing the paupers 
in the workhouse into two classes : the old, 
infirm, and impotent form the first ; the idle, 
improvident, and vicious constitute the second. 
To the former is allowed an ample supply of 
butcher's meat and other suitable food ; to the 
second class nothing but bread and cheese. 
Every possible encouragement is given to 
honest industry, providence, and frugality, by 
the establishment of a Savings Bank, a 
Friendly Society, a Lying-in Charity, and al] 
other means that can be devised." 
The money part of the success arising from 
this system is the least part of its recommend- 
ation ; its effect upon the numbers of births have 
been already stated. But its further effects, as 
stated by Mr. Whately, have been to diminish 
the number of unemployed labourers, — to render 
the' situation of the poor better than ever it was, 
— and to improve their morals as well as their 
condition, insomuch (Mr. Whately says) " those 



CHAP. VI. REMEDY. 107 

" who were very disorderly are very much the 
" reverse ;" and he has had " only two bastardy 
" cases in two years." 

The system of management introduced by Mr. 
Whately into the parish of Cookham has been 
adopted with equal benefit and success in the 
neighbouring parish of White Waltham. 

Mr. Becher, who has published a tract, en- 
titled " The Anti- Pauper System," of which he 
gives an account in his evidence before the 
Lords' Committee on the Poor Laws, in 1831; 
and also of a system adopted in his parish of 
Thurgaton, in the county of Nottingham, of 
which he is the incumbent, and also in the 
neighbouring parish of Southwell, in which he 
resides, describes such system as having been 
attended with equally beneficial effects in the 
reduction of the rates, and in improving the 
conduct and condition of the poor. 

In the parish of Uley, in the county of Glou- 
cester, Mr. Becher's system has been established ; 
and his correspondent, Mr. Baker, gives this ac- 
count of its beneficial effects : — "I have heard, 
" from different persons who reside in the parish, 
" and who, from the difference in their stations 
" and habits, I have every reason to believe had 
" never conversed together on the subject, such 
" accounts of the poor as give me the strongest 
" ground for hoping that, since the establishment 



108 MR. becher's system. PART IV. 

" of your system, crime is rapidly decreasing, 
" and that good order, industry, and all that can 
" make a poor man respectable, will increase and 
*f be firmly established."* 

The system of Mr. Becher operates as that of 
Mr. Whately does, in inducing the poor to find 
work for themselves, through regulations intro- 
duced by him, particularly with reference to the 
management of the poor in the workhouse, to 

* He remarks, ■ — " One part of the effect which we see 
" is, I must confess, above my comprehension. I was much 
" afraid that withdrawing parish relief from persons who had 
" been during their whole lives used to work in their houses, 
" or at least under cover, and thus forced to adopt other employ 
" ments, would, at first, be an exceeding great hardship upon 
" them, and that it would be injurious to the health of many 
" of them. I thought, also, that at first they would not know 
" how to find work for themselves ; I therefore took much 
" pains to get work for many of them during the harvest, 
" and I was fortunate in finding it for them at a distance 
" from the parish. I had no hope but that when this was 
Ci over, and the men had returned home, they would again 
" have applied for parish pay. I was afraid of pressing the 
" thing too hard at first ; and, having decreased our pay about 
" 12/. during the summer, we were all well satisfied with it 
" as a beginning, and hoped to do more next year ; but, to my 
" astonishment, though the harvest is over, and the men have 
" long been returned, we have no more applications for relief 
" than we had when it continued. When we found them 
" work, we took off their pay ; and now that the work is over, 
" they do not ask us to put it on again. It seems, therefore, 
" almost as if we had done no good by finding work for 
" them." He adds, " How they find work for themselves 
" I cannot conceive ! " 



CHAP. VI. MR. WHATELY'S SYSTEM. 109 

which he has mainly applied himself, probably 
from his parish having been united with forty- 
nine others under Mr. Gilbert's Act. It may 
be valuable in such cases, but it is of more im- 
portance that attention should be paid, as Mr. 
Whately has done, to the means of lessening the 
number of inmates in the workhouse, and of 
ceasing to pay wages out of the rate, which Mr. 
Whately has accomplished ; and of simplifying 
the question of settlement as he has also done, 
by rendering a settlement not worth having ex- 
cepting by the aged and helpless, whom the 43d 
Eliz. intended should be the only occupiers of 
the dwellings which it directed to be provided.* 

* Workhouses, as they exist in England, are a perversion 
and abuse of the 43 Eliz., which directed, " That it shall be 
" lawful for the churchwardens and overseers, &c. to erect, 
" build, and set up in fit and convenient places of habitation, 
" in such (some) waste or common, &c. convenient houses 
" of dwelling for the said impotent poor ; and also to place, 
" inmates, or more families than one, in one cottage or house, 
" one act, made in the one and twentieth year of her Ma- 
" jesty's reign, intituled, 'An Act against the erecting or main- 
" taining of Cottages,' or any thing therein contained to the 
" contrary notwithstanding; * which cottages, or places for 
" inmates, shall not at any time be used or employed to or 
" for any other habitation, but only for impotent and poor of 
" the same parish, that shall be there placed from time to 
" time by the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of 
" the same parish, or the most part of them, upon the pains 

* See this act noticed in p. 113. 



1 10 OPERATION AND EFFECTS PART IV. 

The mode by which Mr. Whately brought 
about so great an improvement in his parish was 



" and forfeitures contained in the said former act of the 
" one and thirtieth year of her majesty's reign." 

Workhouses were not erected any where in England until 
the time of Charles the Second, and then only in the cities 
of London and Westminster, upon a recital that " the neces- 
" sity, number, and continual increase of the poor, not only 
" within the cities of London and Westminster, but also 
" through the whole kingdom of England and dominion of 
" Wales, is very great and exceeding burthensome, being 
" occasioned by reason of some defects in the law concerning 
" the settling of the poor, and for want of a due provision 
" of the regulations of relief and employment in such parishes 
" or places where they are legally settled, which doth enforce 
" many to turn incorrigible rogues, and others to perish for 
" want, together with the neglect of the faithful execution 
" of such laws and statutes as were formerly made for the 
" apprehending of rogues and vagabonds, and for the good of 
"the poor." — 13 & 14 Car. 2. c. 12. In the confusion of 
evils here enumerated, this statute increased them, by giving 
additional powers to justices to remove paupers, and to 
restrain the labouring poor from going from one parish to 
another in search of employment ; a regulation than which 
nothing could be more mischievous foir the purpose of its 
object, or more inconsistent with the principles of industry, 
but which remained in force for upwards of a century and a 
half afterwards, until it was repealed by 35 G. 3. c. 101. 

The power granted by the 13 & 14 Car. 2. c. 2., to erect 
workhouses, however, was confined to the cities of London 
and Westminster, and was not extended to other parishes 
until 1722, when it was enacted, " that for the greater ease 
" of parishes in the relief of the poor, it shall and may be 

lawful for the churchwardens and overseers of the poor in 
" any parish, town, township, or place, with the consent of 



a 



CHAP. VI. OF MR. WHATELY'S SYSTEM. Ill 

was as simple as it has been effectual. His is 
an entirely agricultural parish, in which no great 
proprietors reside ; and he prevailed upon the 
farmers to allow him to say to any poor man ap- 



" the major part of the parishioners or inhabitants of the said 
" parish, &c., in vestry or other parish or public meeting for 
" that purpose assembled, or of so many of them as shall 
" be so assembled, upon usual notice thereof first given, to 
" purchase or hire any house or houses of the same parish, 
" &c, and to contract with any person or persons for the 
" lodging, keeping, maintaining, and employing any or all 
" such poor in their respective parishes, &c, as shall desire 
" to receive relief or collection from the same parish, and 
" there to keep, maintain, and employ all such poor persons, 
" and take the benefit of all work, labour, and service of any 
" such poor person or persons who shall be kept or maintained 
" in any such house or houses, for the better maintenance 
" and relief of such poor person or persons who shall be 
there kept or maintained ; and in case any poor per- 
" son of any parish, &c. where such house or houses shall 
" be so purchased or hired shall refuse to be lodged, kept, 
" or maintained in such house or houses, such person or per- 
" sons shall be put out of the book or books where the names 
" of the persons who ought to receive collections in the said 
" parish, &c. are to be registered ; and shall not be entitled 
" to ask or receive collection or relief from the churchwardens, 
" or overseers of the same parish," &c. 

The last is the best part of this enactment, because it 
enables the parish to withhold relief, unless the applicant 
will go into the workhouse, where the helpless young and 
feeble old should be separated from the able-bodied idle, who 
by poor fare, and low wages, should be taught, as Mr. Whately 
has taught them, that their industry may enable them to live 
better any where than in the workhouse. 



a 



llg MR. WHATELy's SYSTEM PART IV. 

plying for relief, — We find work for able-bodied 
men in this parish, but give no relief: if you 
want work, farmer such-a-one has an acre to 
delve, for the digging of which you will be paid 
so much a rod as your work is done. The 
poor thus finding they got only hard work and 
little pay by applying to the parish, soon ceased 
to apply at all, and found better work for them- 
selves. The farmers conceived the poor would 
dig all the land in the parish ; but Mr. Whately 
tells us they did not dig quite half an acre in all. 
This was the short and simple, but effectual, 
method by which Mr. Whately laid a foundation 
for the improvement of morals and industry in 
his parish. It is plain that a similar method may 
be followed in every agricultural parish. It may 
not be so obvious, but it is not less certain, that 
means exist of laying a similar foundation for the 
improvement of morals and the increase of in- 
dustry every where. Thus, in the parish in 
which I write, the mud is allowed to accumulate 
on the banks of the river, to the injury of health 
in the neighbourhood, thought it would form ex- 
cellent manure, particularly for meadow-land, and 
may be carried by water-carriage wherever it 
may be wanted. In so far as the parish is con- 
cerned, the hiring of a few barges would be all 
that would be required to set the idle able-bodied 
poor of the parish to fill them. As in Mr. 



GHAP. VI. PRACTICABLE EVERY WHERE. 113 

Whately's parish the poor did not dig quite half 
an acre, so the poor in St. Margaret's parish pro- 
bably would not fill quite half a barge : but if 
they did not, others, probably, would ; and that 
which is now a source of annoyance and discom- 
fort, as well as injurious to the health of the 
vicinage, might, as it would, prove a means of 
gain to industry, which would, at all events, be 
relieved from the burden of enabling able-bodied 
workmen to live idle who ought to work in order 
to gain their living. 

Herein may appear the inadequacy of the Act 
of Mr. Sturges Bourne*, and, in truth, of every 
act of the legislature that attempts to regulate in- 
dustry or interfere with charity. Neither can 
be dealt with by act of Parliament : the attempt 
can only lead to restrain the one and to banish 
the other. t 

But we have had the 43 Eliz. for upwards 

* 59 G. 3. c. 12. 

•J* Herein may also appear the inexpediency of a Poor Law 
for Ireland, whose poor are almost all able-bodied. It would 
not be difficult to show that the evils which afflict Ireland 
have proceeded from legislative restraints upon industry, but 
this is not the place for it. I trust, however, I have said 
enough to show, that any Poor Law for Ireland would only 
increase evils springing from restraints upon industry, and 
that if industry in England were set free from restraints, in 
place of having too many, we should find we have too few 
labourers, and in place of Irish vagrants being a burden, 
we should find them a benefit. 



114 INADEQUACY OP OTHER REMEDIES. PART IV. 

of two centuries; and are we to reject it? — 
No ; but we are to cease to make it the instru- 
ment of abuses contrary to its intendment. Let 
us no longer confound relief with work : let no 
relief be given to the able-bodied ; and before 
even relief is given to the aged, the infirm, or 
the helpless, let it be enquired, and let it be 
ascertained, whether it be necessary ; for tiie 
43 Eliz. allows only of necessary relief. 

For the sick poor, charity, free and unre- 
strained, has never been wanting in this country. 
Palaces, in the name of hospitals, have been largely 
provided for the relief of every kind of human 
suffering except poverty. Supported, as they are 
founded, by voluntary contributions alone, can 
we believe that institutions or associations for 
the relief of honest poverty, or the encourage- 
ment of honest industry among the poor, would 
have been wanting if it had not been for the 
abuses of the Poor Laws ? Let, then, every 
parish in England set about putting an end to 
these abuses, as the parishes of Cookham, White 
Waltham, Thurgaton, and Uley have done ; and 
then in every parish of England, as in those 
parishes, honest poverty will be relieved, and 
honest industry encouraged. 



CHAP. VII. EXPEDIENTS. 115 



CHAP. VII. 

EXPEDIENTS FOR THE RELIEF OF THE POOR. 

The grant of small portions of land to cot- 
tagers, which is a favourite measure with many, 
can only have a very limited effect in remedying 
the abuses of the Poor Laws. It may tend to 
produce a better description of labourers, and 
may be highly beneficial as an encouragement to 
well doing ; but this is the extent of it. 

It is like a system which has grown up in the 
northern counties of England, and in the south- 
ern counties of Scotland, where every married 
farm servant has a cottage on the farm, with a 
piece of garden-ground attached to it, to whom 
the farmer allows the keep of a cow and a pig, 
with some poultry, and ploughs for him a piece 
of potatoe-ground, which is manured with the 
dung of the cow and pig ; and whose services 
are paid in kind of the produce of the farm, 
with a very small portion in money.* These 

* The particulars of this system are given by Mr. Grey, 
a proprietor and extensive occupier of land in the county of 
Durham, in his evidence before the Lords' Committee on the 
Poor Laws, in 1831. It removes all the objections to large 
farms which prevail in these districts. 

I 2 



116 GENERAL INCLOSURE. PART IV. 

things do excellently well when left to them- 
selves, but become vitiated when touched by an 
Act of Parliament, as may be exemplified by the 
31 Eliz. c. 7«> which prohibited the erection of 
any cottage, unless there should be assigned 
" to the same cottage or building four acres of 
" ground at the least, to be constantly occupied 
" and manured therewith, so long as the same 
4 ' cottage shall be inhabited;" an enactment 
which has been as little regarded in practice as 
the 43d Eliz. c. 2. 

A general Inclosure Act, which has been re- 
commended by the Committee of the House of 
Commons on the Poor Laws of 1828, and for 
which purpose a Bill was introduced in the 
Session about to close, and is still pending, is 
a good thing in itself; but there are so many 
local interests to reconcile, that, in order to re- 
move their opposition, provisions will be intro- 
duced, which, operating in the way of restraint, 
may do more harm than good. Though it is of 
great importance that the remaining commons 
and commonable lands of England should be 
brought under cultivation, it is of more import- 
ance that the lands already in cultivation should 
be well cultivated ; and if land in severalty is 
not or cannot be improved, by reason of the in- 
jurious operation of our Corn Laws, still less can 
land yet in common ; so that a general Inclosure 



CHAP. VII. ENABLING ACT. 117 

Act will remain a dead letter, in so far as relates 
to its main purpose, until the Corn Laws shall 
be altered ; and in regard to the poor, it can 
only carve out of the inclosure a pauper farm ; 
and this is incompatible with Mr. Whateley's sys- 
tem, which renders any such farm unnecessary, 
and would prevent its cultivation as a pauper 
farm. 

A bill to enable the majority of rate-payers to 
come to an agreement as to the mode of em- 
ploying the poor, is unobjectionable, in so far as 
it gives only enabling powers ; but the danger 
is, that these powers will be abused. This is 
not said lightly, seeing all the powers given by 
the statute of Elizabeth have been perverted as 
well as abused. But the bill introduced for 
this purpose in the House of Commons in the 
session about to close and now passed, as first 
brought in, proposed to enable the majority 
of rate-payers not only to send a pauper for 
employment to any rate-payer they pleased, but 
to compel such rate-payer to employ the pauper ; 
as if a master was to be obliged to take a 
servant, whether he wanted him or no ; and to 
take a servant, not of his own choice, but of his 
neighbours, to say nothing about treating the 
pauper as a slave. I, therefore, cannot be with- 
out apprehension that any such enabling bill 
may be perverted to this purpose, or to establish 

i 3 



118 EMIGRATION. PART IV. 

a labour rate, which is a favourite object with 
many country gentlemen, but would only in- 
crease the evils it meant to remove. As a mere 
means of enabling a parish to adopt Mr. Whate- 
ley's system, such a bill may be harmless ; but 
no bill whatever is necessary for the adoption of 
his system by any parish. 

Emigration, upon which so much time and 
money have been spent, is the worst experiment 
of all, because it deprives us of our able-bodied 
workmen. Emigration should neither be en- 
couraged nor discouraged. There will always 
be stirring spirits desirous of going abroad ; these 
may be left to their own impulse : but, if industry 
be set free from restraint, all our able-bodied 
workmen will be required at home. 

I have noticed these things, in order that I 
may not seem negligent of any matter which 
has relation to this important subject. But, at 
the best, they are only mitigants, and not re- 
medies. 



119 



PART V. 

REVENUE RESTRAINTS. 



CHAP. I. 



PUBLIC REVENUE. 



We had duties of customs in England long be- 
fore we had duties of excise ; the first of which 
ever imposed was in the time of Charles II., 
when a duty on beer and ale was granted to 
that monarch during his life* ; but tonnage and 
poundage composed the earliest subsidies of the 
crown, and formed the first grant made after the 
Restoration.t 

These duties of tonnage and poundage, which 
form the foundation of our duties of customs to 
this day, were granted upon goods exported, as 
well as upon goods imported ; the effect of which 
was to restrain and limit home industry. Par- 
ticular interests, which are always allowed to 
have too much influence in our legislation, ob- 

* 12 Car. 2. c.23. f Ibid. c. 4. 

I 4 



120 ERRORS IN IMPOSING DUTIES. PART V. 

tained, in 1700, the removal of these duties on 
the export of woollen, corn, meal, and bread. # 
But it was not until 17^1 that the duties of 
export upon other articles of home produce or 
manufacture were repealed t : and still, under a 
mistaken notion of preventing other countries 
from having raw materials for the purposes of 
manufacture, alum, lead, lead-ore, tin, leather 
tanned, copperas, coals, wool-cords, white woollen 
cloths, lapis calaminaris, skins of all sorts, glue, 
cony-hair or wool, hares' wool, hair of all sorts, 
horses, and litharge of lead were excepted t' 9 
and export duties since imposed on British 
sheep and lambs, wool and woollen yarn, are 
still levied, as well as upon most of the above 
articles. With notions alike adverse to industry, 
custom-house duties are also still levied on coals 
and culm, and slates carried coastwise. 

To the amount of the rates of tonnage and 
poundage, (that is, duties of customs first granted 
in the time of Charles II.,) thirds and two thirds 
of subsidies and per centages have been added 
by various acts of parliament in subsequent 
reigns. These have been consolidated by late 
acts ; but the whole present a mass of incon- 
gruities which require revision. 

* 11 & 16 G. 3. c.20. 

f 8 G. 1. c. 15. § 7. t Ibid - § 8 - 



CHAP. II. THE PUBLIC REVENUE. 121 



CHAP. II. 

BEST MODE OF RAISING THE PUBLIC REVENUE. 

Every excise duty tends to repress home in- 
dustry in the branch of it upon which such duty 
is imposed.* But duties of customs, limited to 
articles of import, have no such effect : though 
they cannot be said to encourage, they do not 
repress home industry: and, seeing we must 

* It is not merely on account of the effects of the tax in 
repressing industry, that duties of excise are to be avoided. 
They are attended with regulations, which " involve matters 
" of important inquiry in a national and moral, as well as a 
" financial point of view. If such regulations occasion ex- 
" pense, trouble, or loss of time, in the process of any manu- 
" facture, an increase is made in the price of the article to 
" compensate such expense, trouble, or loss of time, as well 
" as the amount of the tax. If they limit the extent of any 
" manufacture, so many fewer people receive employment 
" than otherwise would be employed, whereby the aggregate 
" returns of industry are lessened in proportion to the fewer 
" number of persons employed ; and the public revenue is 
" also lessened in proportion to the lesser consumption of 
" the taxed commodities which they require. If fiscal regu- 
" lations work out a monopoly, in addition to all the other 
" consequences above stated, the price of the article, in the 
" manufacture of which such regulations intervene, is thereby 
" raised still further. Such regulations thus come to operate 
" as an additional tax upon the consumers of all taxed com- 
" modities." {Revision of our Fiscal Code, 1828.) 



122 REPRESSION OF INDUSTRY. PART V. 

raise a revenue for the service of the state, we 
ought so to raise it as not to repress home in- 
dustry. In this way duties of customs may be 
said to promote home industry; inasmuch as, for 
all articles imported from abroad, articles of 
home industry must be exported to pay for 
them. But all mankind have been kept in 
chains by erroneous impressions respecting gold 
and silver : and in matters of revenue, as of in- 
dustry, men have been alike wrong in all that 
relates to these metals, which are only com- 
modities, at all times purchasable by other 
commodities, as other commodities are by them. 
The total quantity of all the gold and silver in 
the world is small, compared to the total quan- 
tity of all the other commodities in it. As ma- 
terials for industry, gold and silver are not to be 
compared to other commodities. It is industry 
alone, however, that enables a country to acquire 
riches, which consists not in gold and silver, but 
in the products of industry, by which a country 
becomes rich through the accumulation of the 
proceeds arising from those products : and where- 
ever any country has products of industry to give 
in exchange, it can always obtain, in exchange 
for them, any quantity of gold and silver it may 
require. 

In raising a revenue, however, too little regard 
has been paid to industry, though industry is the 



CHAP. II. REPRESSION OF INDUSTRY. 123 

source of revenue, as it is of wealth. I put forth 
a pamphlet, in the spring of 1828, entitled 
" Reasons for a Revision of our Fiscal Code;" 
in which, remarking that, in the year 1815, taxes 
to the gross amount of 85,311,706/. 16s. lid. 
were raised in Great Britain, with much less pres- 
sure upon the people than 58,417,729/. 7 s. 2%d. 
were raised in the year 1827, in the United 
Kingdom, I suggested the enquiry, how it hap- 
pened that, with an increase of our foreign 
trade, and with an amount in taxes, in 1827, 
less by 25,000,000/. and upwards than in 1815, 
the raising a lesser sum in 1827 should have 
borne more heavily upon the people ? The de- 
tails in that pamphlet had relation chiefly to 
taxes of excise ; and its object was, to show how 
infinitely more good might be done, even in the 
way of revenue, by relieving industry from fiscal 
restraints, than by any thing that could be done 
by diminishing expenditure, though there was 
no reason why every practical saving that could 
be attained should not be made also.* 

* A copy of this pamphlet was sent to the Chairman and 
two other Members of the Committee. The branch of the 
enquiry therein suggested, however, was altogether over- 
looked, though it forms the main subject of the publication 
of the Chairman in the following year. With the views taken 
in that publication, it is very singular that the improvement 
of the revenue, by relieving industry from taxation which 
pressed upon it, should have entirely escaped him while the 
Committee was sitting. 



124 INCREASE OF CUSTOMS. PART V. 

The Finance Committee of that year con- 
fined their labours to what appeared to me 
to form the least important branch of the en- 
quiry ; namely, the diminution of expenditure. 
In the following year, however, its chairman 
made up for the omission by the publication of 
his book on Financial Reform. 

But, without going into details, it remains to 
point out how almost all taxes of excise may be 
much diminished, if not removed, by deriving a 
larger portion of our revenue from duties of 
Customs. 

These did not amount, at the commencement 
of the reign of George III., to 2,000,000/. They 
have risen regularly ever since, and now yield a 
net revenue approaching to 17>000,000/. The 
amount was much larger in 1830 ; but the duty 
on coals brought into the port of London has 
been since repealed, and the duties on corn im- 
ported last year have diminished.* 

Duties of customs having been imposed at a 
time when the principles of taxation were little 
understood, and being levied by per-centage in- 
creased from time to time upon articles imported, 

* Duties of customs on coals carried coastwise, however, 
and on slates, continue to be levied. All duties of customs 
on any article whatever, carried coastwise, should be repealed, 
and also on all articles of home produce and manufacture 
exported, some of which still remain. 



CHAP. II. REVISION REQUIRED. 125 

according to fixed official rates, established up- 
wards of a century and a half ago, it is obvious that 
the amount of duties now levied cannot be upon a 
proper scale. A commencement has been made 
by what has been done in the present session, in 
adopting abetter scale for certain articles of import, 
The whole list of articles imported should be gone 
through, and as the revenue of the customs im- 
proves, from the adaptation of a scale of duties 
corresponding with the present state of things, 
duties of excise should be repealed or diminished. 
Among such a variety of articles, it is impossible 
to lay down any rule j but thus much is evident, 
that the duty levied should not be dispropor- 
tioned to the exchangeable value of the article ; 
and the great rise which has taken place in the 
exchangeable value of money, moreover, renders 
a revision of our duties of customs peculiarly 
necessary. There may be exceptions ; and so 
heavy a duty has been so long levied upon to- 
bacco, that upon this plant, perhaps, an excessive 
duty may and ought to continue to be levied 
upon its importation. 

The very large amount of duties of customs 
now, compared with their amount at the ter- 
mination of the war, shows that this source of 
revenue, from increasing consumption, may be 
safely relied upon. Of the duties of customs at 
present levied, a very small proportion is paid by 



126 SURE SOURCE OF REVENUE. PART V. 

the people of Ireland ; * but as that country in- 
creases in wealth, (and, with all its disturbances, 
it is increasing in wealth,) the improvement of 
Ireland, as well as the further improvement of 
Great Britain, presents an additional source 
of increase. Here, as in every other case of 
taxation, consumption affords a sure rule ; and 

* With reference to Ireland, I have observed in another 
place that " the exports from Ireland compared to her popu- 
" lation, and the sum of taxes which she pays, contrasted 
" with the amount of the exports from Great Britain, her 
" population, and the taxes raised in the latter country, sug- 
" gest ground for doubting that the amount of the exports of 
" a country furnishes a sure proof of her prosperity. From an 
" account laid upon the table of the House of Commons in 
" April, 1824 (to be found among the finance accounts of 
" that year), showing the amount of the gross revenue of 
" each country from the year 1792 to that period, the net 
" revenue, the expense of management, the funded debt un- 
" redeemed, the charge, the supplies voted, the payments for 
" national objects, and the amount of the population, it 
" appears that the net revenue of Great Britain, with a 
" population of 14,379,677, in 1823, was 53,788,496/. ; 
" whereas the net revenue of Ireland, with a population of 
" 6,846,949, was only 3,718,098/, Yet Ireland, it appeared 
" from an account taken from the finance accounts of 1826, 
" exported in each of the years, 1823, 1824, and 1825, pro- 
" duce and manufactures to an amount in official value nearly 
" double the sum paid by her in taxes ; while the produce 
" and manufactures exported from Great Britain in the same 
" years, according to official value, were about ten millions 
" less than the net sum raised by her in taxes, upon the ave- 
" rage of these three years." — Revision of our Fiscal Code, 
1828. 



CHAP. III. NATIONAL DEBT. 127 

as the consumption of articles imported increases, 
the amount of the duties of customs upon them 
should be diminished ; for, as increase of industry 
arises from small profits with quick returns, so 
the increase of the revenue of customs arises 
from small duties on the small but increasing 
consumption of large numbers. 



CHAP. III. 



NATIONAL DEBT. 



Large as the amount of our public debt is, it 
need not give us much concern. The sum of 
the gross ordinary revenue of Great Britain last 
year, was 49,836,354/. This is a sum which the 
people of Great Britain are enabled to spare from 
the annual returns of their industry, which can- 
not therefore well be less than 5 or 600,000,000/. 
But our debt, unfunded as well as funded, does 
not amount to 800,000,000/. Now, a landed 
proprietor would not be deemed very heavily 
burdened, if the debt which he owed was less 
than two years' returns from his estates. It is 
not, therefore, the want of means, but the mal- 
conformation of them, that occasions distress ; and 
this mal- conformation arises from legislative re- 



1^8 RECAPITULATION. PART V. 

straints upon industry, which, as the legislature 
has imposed them, so the legislature must remove 
them, by a cautious and careful enquiry into the 
operation of such restraints, and by repealing 
or diminishing them wherever it is practicable, 
which in most cases it will be found to be. 



CHAP. IV. 



RECAPITULATION. 



In war or peace, and under every adminis- 
tration, whether tory or whig, our national in- 
dustry has extended itself wherever it has not 
been checked or controlled by legislative pro- 
visions. This is a melancholy reflection, very 
humiliating to public men.* The business of 
government, or the science of legislation, is no 
light matter. It requires the cultivation of mind, 
the acquisition of knowledge, and the exercise 
of patient and diligent enquiry, inducive of 
habits of attention and application in youth, in 
order to qualify man to grasp principle, and to 

* " In retirement," said a public man of no mean attain- 
ments, " I became sensible that, when in place, I had been 
" deficient in almost every thing but diligence." — Huskisson 
on the Bullion Question, 1809. 



CHAP. IV. FACTS NEGLECTED. 129 

master practice in its details, as he advances in 
life. But are the modes of teaching, the matters 
taught, the moral discipline and habits acquired 
at our schools and universities, conducive to 
those attainments ? # 

In every session of Parliament, facts of the 
most useful kind are embodied in reports and 
accounts laid upon its tables, which seem to be 
thus loaded for no other purpose but to rise up 
in evidence against the negligence of those for 



* This is not the first time the question has been put. In 
an essay in a little book, published seven years ago, (The 
Influence of Interest and Prejudice on Proceedings in Par- 
liament;) after remarking upon the prejudice which excluded 
our great schools and universities by name, with every school 
that had a special visitor, from the enquiry concerning cha- 
rities, I suggested, that the heads of those foundations should 
themselves be required to report upon them. This may be 
done by a royal sign manual ; or, if a royal commission 
to special commissioners shall be deemed more advisable, 
such commission may be issued, as it has been issued in the 
case of Scotland : it is much more necessary in England. 
Let not the heads of our schools or colleges be startled ; no 
harm is intended, or will be done, to them : but the well- 
being of the state requires that our youth should be well 
tutored, and wholesomely nurtured. Reports, however, are 
made in vain, if no use is to be made of their contents. 

The powers of the current commissioners upon charities 
should be enlarged. They should be enabled to appoint 
managers, where managers have lapsed, or even to correct 
abuses, where these can be immediately corrected, subject to 
special reports to Parliament in this behalf, that their acts 
may be forthwith corrected, if they appear wrong. 

K 



130 REFLECTIONS. PART V. 

whose use these facts are collected. With the 
facilities afforded in the titles and contents de- 
livered to them, it should be the business of 
every member of Parliament to have his ses- 
sional papers bound regularly in volumes ; and, 
before he places them on the shelves of his 
library, to peruse every volume, and mark in it 
what he may deem useful. What would be the 
consequence, if the judges of the land did not 
" read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest **■ the 
acts of the session? Would not such acts be 
badly executed, or altogether neglected ? But 
are they not often badly made, from the failure 
to read and understand the documents upon 
which they proceed? and, if these were read 
and understood, would not many laws that are 
made, never be made at all ? 

Is it possible to attend to the facts disclosed 
in these pages without making these reflections ? 
Seeing our shipping has increased with the re- 
moval of restraints, and our foreign trade with 
the absence of restraints, can we believe that 
our home industry would not have increased 
also, but for the presence of restraints? Can 
assent be refused to the consequences arising 
from the exclusive privilege of the Bank of 
England? When a rise in the exchangeable 
value of money is going on, are the Directors of 
that bank, who are ignorant of its operation, and 



CHAP. IV. QUESTIONS. 131 

could not stay its course if they were aware of 
it, to be allowed to increase the mischiefs of its 
consequences, and to derange the general in- 
dustry of the country? Are the evils of mo- 
nopoly to be continued in an exclusive privilege, 
the most extensive in its operation of all mo- 
nopolies, to the insecurity and uncertainty of all 
transactions ? Are the restraints arising from a 
dear currency to be continued, and the benefits 
of a cheap currency to be withheld from the 
country, in ignorance of the nature of coin, 
bills of exchange, and bankers' notes ? Are the 
products of industry to be limited by such re- 
straints throughout the country ? With the in- 
creasing demand of an increasing population for 
food, could the most important branch of 
industry of all have declined, and continue to 
decline, unless by reason of the restraints im- 
posed upon it since 1815 ? Is land to be suffered 
to continue to be unproductive, and our agri- 
cultural labourers to be thrown out of employ- 
ment, through the operation of the corn laws ? 
Is our population to be unwholesomely increased, 
and the morals as well as industry of our labour- 
ing poor to continue to be destroyed, by abuses 
in the administration of the poor laws ? And, 
in raising a necessary revenue for the state, are 
we not to raise it in the manner which shall 
press the least upon the general industry of the 

K 2 



132 SUGGESTIONS. PART V. 

country ? Amidst all our boasted love and cry 
for liberty, is the freedom of industry, of all 
kinds of freedom the most important, neither to 
be understood nor attended to ? 

Ministers, legislators old and new, men of 
all parties, I call upon you not to take my posi- 
tions for granted, but to enquire patiently and 
diligently, as I have done, in order to ascertain 
results by the evidence of facts, and then deny, 
if you can, the conclusions I have arrived at. 
If I am wrong as to the causes of our distress, 
find out what those causes are. Are we to have 
enquiries about West India distress reiterated and 
renewed ; and are we to have no enquiry into 
the causes of British distress ? Can the latter 
have proceeded without a cause, or is it less 
deserving of inquiry, or less capable of being 
ascertained, than the former ? 

Let an unrestrained impulse be given to ge- 
neral industry, by withholding from the Bank of 
England the renewal of its exclusive privilege, 
and by the issue of small notes, with our present 
standard ; or by the rejection of a standard of 
gold, and the adoption of a standard of silver. 
Let capital be enabled to return to the cultiva- 
tion of the soil, by restoring to the home grower 
the advantages of the increasing demand of our 
increasing population for food, which he enjoyed 
previous to 18L5, but which have been trans- 



CHAP. IV. BENEFIT. 133 

ferred to the dealer in foreign grain since that 
year. Let the natural employment in the culti- 
vation of the soil, which the poor enjoyed pre- 
vious to 1815, be also restored to them; and then 
the correction of the abuses of the Poor Laws, as it 
has been already put in practice in three different 
counties in England, will be as extensive as it will 
be certain. Finally, let industry cease to be re- 
strained through any legislative restraints, and 
particularly through fiscal restraints, by a proper 
modification of our duties of customs ; and 
lessening our duties of excise, as our revenue 
from customs increases ; and then — but not till 
then — will the country take a rebound, and pro- 
ceed in a career of prosperity, even in this 
country before unexampled. Every thing is ripe 
for it, — capital, — intelligence, — skill, — en- 
terprise, — industry, swelling even to overflowing, 
but pent up and diverted from their natural 
course by legislative interference. 



THE END. 



London : 
Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, 

New- Street- Square. 



\ 



